The Life's Adventure of Koujaku Naruto
by Unknown-nin345
Summary: In a fight where his heritage revealed itself young Naruto discovers the truth about his parents,he is told that the seal holding Kyuubi is breaking and that his parents heirlooms are outside of konoha.He sets out to begin his life adventure.DISCONTINUED
1. Heritage revealed, Journey begin

The Life's Adventure of Koujaku Naruto

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other ideas, lines, weapons, clothes, and/or names from other books, manga, fan fictions, and/or movies.

Summary- After a fight where his heritage is revealed Naruto discovers who his parents are, that they left behind stuff for him, and his real last name. Now begins his life's adventure.

Warning: naruto's parents are not going to be the ones revealed in canon so no flames about that please. Also my info on some subjects I will mention in here will still be growing so I won't claim that what I say will be true. Ok? Just please no flames.

-Konoha Hospital-

Inside one of the many rooms in the high quality medical center lay an unconscious boy that looked to be at least ten-years old but in actuality he was but two years younger than what he looked. The reason for this strange occurrence had occurred earlier that evening and since right now he is unconscious let us dive into his mind.

Ready? Dive, dive, dive!

________________________________________________________________________

-Inside the boy's mind-(thump! oof, we're here. Well let's go then.)

Leaning against a tree in the middle of a clearing that had the moon shining down on it were two figures looking at a mirror that just seemed to have been showing something. The one that we can see is the figure of the unconscious boy in the real world while the other is covered in the shadow of the tree so his features are unseen. Breaking the silence the boy spoke up.

"Just never can seem to get a break huh, tou-san?" Questioned the boy looking over at the shadowed form of his now revealed father, but only in word, he's still in the trees shadow.

"No, it seems like you can't but, remember it's something you shouldn't dwell on. Now get out of here shrimp, your mother wants to meet you" replied the figure waving his hand to a door that suddenly appeared in the clearing.

Smiling the boy stood up and walked over to the door, when he reached it he turned to his father, silver eyes dancing with anticipation, and said "I can't wait." With that he walked through the door, with it dissolving as he left.

Chuckling, the father looked over at the mirror where it showed the boy being taken away by a blonde-haired man. Sighing the father said to no one "You've become a good kid, and you'll be an even better shinobi. Naruto." With that he closed his eyes and fell asleep waiting for his son to return, but before his eyes closed completely we see a glimpse of silver from them.**(a/n: don't worry, will be explained)**

-With Naruto-

As Naruto trudged through his sewer-ish mindscape he thought back to how he had gotten into this mess, how he met his father and watched the memory with him of his parent's last night alive, as well as the two bastards who were responsible for his life. '_At least they're already dead so I_ _won't feel the need to go on some stupid revenge quest like some sort of idiot who'll, I don't know, obviously be gay, have a stick up his ass, and maybe be treated like some sort of king. (shudder) I'll feel sorry for any males associated with that guy._'But we digress, back to how this happened. 'W_ait, why is it showing up all around me? Oh, DUH! This is my mind. Oh well, might as well watch.__** (sits down)**__ hmmm, if only I had some pop-(__**poof**__) whoa. the mind is a powerful place.'_

___________________________________________________________________

-Flashback to the start of the night-

Walking through a forest during nights of the full moon always provided a sort of natural, calming state of mind for Naruto. This was usually why he always hid in forests all day in order to just be able to enjoy this. Yet, he had a feeling tonight would be different, even with the pain from his stomach area that had occurred earlier, that something was going to happen to alter the way he lived, it just seemed to come from his gut. Unfortunately, in Naruto's case the gut feeling is usually the right one for him. Hearing a noise to his right had Naruto tensing, in case he needed to use his well developed speed. But whatever it was came too fast for the eight-year old to react. Being grabbed by the neck and slammed into a tree is not a pleasant experience which even caused the watcher to wince at what happened to him. "Hehehehe, I've got you now you little piece of shit." snarled out the…person choking him, "Let me tell you it took a while to find you, what with your half and half blood along with that blasted seal on you to just cover it up some more. But I've got you now and you know what I'm going to do? (leans down to naruto's ear) I'm going to drain you of your blood, leaving you as just a husk. You'll be _nothing_" Pulling back the young blonde could see his two top canine teeth elongating "There isn't anything you can do now (evil chuckle)."

The now identified vampire sunk his fangs into the boy's neck but pulled out almost immediately apparently gagging and clutching at his throat. He choked out "You (hack) half-blood bastard (cough) what the fuck (wheeze) did you do?!" Anything else was cut off but what he was witnessing before him. Still pinned to the tree caught in a beam of moonlight thrashed Naruto, seemingly defying gravity. He ripped apart his shirt revealing that his ribcage was enlarging, skin turning ashen gray with blotches of black here and there; his back becoming covered in silver fur which spread and joined at his head, previously blonde hair turning silver as well. Limbs then lengthened by a couple of inches, the jaw line thrust out slowly only to come back in a bit farther out than before, since his mouth was open in yells of pain the teeth could be seen becoming more pointy. After all this he dropped to the ground crouched, one arm placed before him with the other to the side. His head shot up sharply as his eyes, which had been squeezed shut, snapped open to show that the blackness of the pupils had bled out covering the rest of the eye while his teeth were bared in a ferocious snarl.** (1)** The vampire stood rooted to the ground in fear and shock, before him stood the second hybrid in the history of lycan's and vampires, and some of the small part of humor left in him realized it had happened almost like before. Obviously this boy before him had more Lycan in him than vampire, damn if only he hadn't bit him there wouldn't have been another one of these abominations. He was cut from his thoughts by the hybrid in front of him…vanishing **(a/n: no not like invisible, just speed**). Looking around quickly he saw nothing "Where'd that little shit-stain go?" Continuing to spin around he froze when he heard a snarl from behind him, the pale blood-sucker the proceeded to do the whole cliché slow turn only to see nothing.

'SPLURSH' "GAAAAHHH!!!"

Looking down at his chest he could see a bloodied hand sticking out from his chest, red heart clutched within it, turning his head to the side he gasped out his last words "You will never be accepted, never loved" Smiling darkly he finished, "You will always be alone because of wha-" He never finished as his head was swiped completely off his body by the young being who has had a cursed life. The headless body then dropped first to its knees then lay flat.

The lycan-vampire combined boy then fell to his knees himself and his features changed back with tears dripping from now silver eyes along with of brown hair mixed with the blonde. Also, if one were to look closely at the seal on his stomach parts of the spiral that had once looked complete now seemed cracked and broken. Of course after experiencing something as nerve-racking as that when you're only eight is bound-Thump- there he goes, off to the land of unconscious and off to where we are now.

________________________________________________________________________

-Back in Naruto's mind-

The young-'W_ait, what am I going to call myself? Hell, I'm not a lycan or vamp, hmmm…vampcan? no, stupid. Eh, I'll ask Kaa-san. According to Tou-san she was good at naming stuff.' _Decided the young whatever-he-was, since he didn't know what to call himself, stood up and continued on to where his mother was located "(sigh) Why the bloody hell are these two so far apart?" Still the anticipation of meeting his mother kept him from complaining, plus it gave him time to think on what he had seen in the mirror with his father….

________________________________________________________________________

(flashback)**(a/n: don't worry this is the last one)**

-in the clearing at the beginning-

Naruto looked around in confusion at where he ended up (Do I really need to describe it again?). He wondered how he got to this place when the last thing he remembered was beheading that vampire. The young boy shuddered and what that dead man said started to place doubts within him. He started believing those words bringing tears back to Naruto's eyes. With his eyes shut he didn't see the that had been standing in the tree's shadow come out and wrap his arms around him in a firm embrace, this made Naruto freeze having rarely experienced something like this since his usual hugs came from this crazy, purple haired lady who had no sense of modesty, and those weren't like this one. The figure then spoke:

"No Naruto, don't give in to what the man said. He was trying to hurt you so do not listen. Hear me now. What you did was because you wanted to live while he wanted you to die. Your will was stronger and is what cracked the seal. Allowing you you're hybrid transformation. Do not dwell on his death. I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil. For while he may have had a black heart he was still a life, and you should never have to take a life at so young an age." The figure finished in soothing tones. As the voice spoke Naruto felt a sense of familiarity with it but he could not place where he had heard it. The man gripped Naruto by his shoulders and turned him so that they could see each others faces and he continued speaking "You are strong Naruto. You can overcome this by just believing you can. You will tell your children stories of your triumphs, who will in turn tell their children. The only thing you're scared of right now are words, and while words are strong the will of a person can be so much stronger and just by seeing what you've overcome in your life so far I know you can do this. What we do in life, echoes in eternity." He finished with great conviction.

Naruto sat silent for a minuet, mulling over these words and the more he did the less strength his fear had until he had no more fear. After all he did overcome worse stuff, but there are still some questions that need answers. "Arigatou, you are right but there are some things I need to know like: Where are we? who are you? and what did I become?" he asked the questions with all the speed of a sugar-high squirrel.

The man before him let go and sat back in the lotus position which Naruto mimicked. "Well the first question's easy enough, what we are in right now is what's called a mindscape. Specifically yours, and it's basically an area that one creates in their mind to better organize it and to protect its knowledge."

"So I made this?" Asked the boy in awe. Hey, he's eight.

"Not this section, I did. When you leave you'll see why. Now as for what you are…don't freak out or break down now but you were only ¼ human which has left you from that bite you were given. Now the blood from your mother and father remain, no it's not a Kekkai Genkai" Seeing the exited look coming on, "No. What you received started out as a curse, for both of their kinds. It was uncontrollable, wild, but now it has become tame. Naruto, your father was lycan or werewolf while your mother was vampire. This makes you a hybrid of the two species, neither lycan nor vampire but stronger than both. But there is one thing you must always remember, never touch silver. Since both vampires and lycans suffered from the metal, it will hurt you worse as a combination of the species. Do you understand?" Explained the man before him, never stopping. Hey, inside the mind you don't need to breath.

Naruto was actually taking this pretty well, and by that we mean he's bouncing around more than a chipmunk with an extreme case of sugar rush.

"NARUTO!!" Said blond/brown stopped hopping and sat down again "Thank you. Now as for who I am… that's difficult to say at the moment. What I am is an image placed by a seal your father made, so it's a little hard to explain…" he paused to gather his thoughts but was stopped by Naruto raising his hand.

"You don't have to… Tou-san." he whispered the last word as if scared the image before him might leave if he said it any louder.

The man seemed shocked and then smiled softly and proudly, reaching over to ruffle his son's head. "Always knew you were smarter than you looked. (He glances around clearing and leans in lowering his voice) Just so you know, no matter what your mother may say, you got your analytical skills from me." He then winks at Naruto who smiles back at his tou-san. "Now on to business before we view our final moments as a final in that mirror over there. I have a cave set up that holds some things that you will find useful in your life as a shinobi, I won't tell you what they are for two reasons: 1, I'll be laughing my ass off at watching you guess and 2, In case a shinobi who can read memories enters while you're unconscious I don't want people to know because the stuff is pretty important. Who knows your mom might tell you what she left for you but I sure as hell won't."

Pouting Naruto said "You're cruel Tou-san! When I go see Kaa-san I'll be sure to tell her about this!"

Laughing his father replied and said "What can she do to me, she's at a whole 'nother part of your mind."

Smirking evilly Naruto countered "But it's my mind so that means I can put you two in the same room, HA!"

His face paled and then barked out a laugh "Oh, now I'm sure you're my son! Ha-Ha! Well, now comes the bad part of the evening (sigh) the night our family was torn apart. I'm not going to force you to see this, if you want I…can just give you a brief telling (Naruto nodded wanting to speak more with his father) Okay. Here let's go lean against the tree." As he got up a beam of moonlight illuminated his face. Naruto could see a square jaw line, silver eyes with scratch mark running through one, and hair, brown as bark on a tree. When they reached the tree both leaned against it. His father ran one of his large hands through his hair and sighed long.

"Phew, well guess I better star from when you were born which was on September 10, yah you were born a full month before Kyuubi was sent by Inari-sama to Konoha in order to take back the bloodline limit that had been given to group of people that had corrupted it's use from when it was first given. Of course nobody knew this and had forgotten Kyuubi was a holy creature not a demon, I mean come on does it say anywhere that the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the great Nine-tailed beast of foxes was a demon. No, it was the protector of Fire country, how else could the First and Second Hokages get permission to settle in this land!?" He paused and a glass of water appeared which he took a drink of "Man, gotta love the mindscape, oh (sees naruto's confused look) that's one of the great things about a mindscape, it can be what ever you want and can provide you whatever you want as long as it's an actual thing you've seen before. No, you can't bring your mother to this place and believe me I tried, but she's bound to her seal. Aaannnyways… back to the story. So, the Kyuubi, oh and son if you ever meet the Kyuubi try to find out it's real name, because Kyuubi is just a title and I say it because I don't know if it's male or female. (sees naruto sporting an amused look) Well, of course I don't know, I've never been able to ask it, because while most would just assume it's a male I like to keep and open mind to theses sort of things."

"You know something Tou-san?" "Hmm?" "You're very good at getting off track."

"Huh, oh right sorry.(clears throat) Anyway, we never went into Konoha, we lived in a small village a little ways out and while everyone else was evacuating, we couldn't because your mother had just given birth and needed to rest and you had just been born . So, we stayed and on the day of the attack we could see the Kyuubi way off in the distance, but it never came close to the village sensing a newborn baby." He paused for a moment to ready himself for what came next. "I had left you and your mother inside while I went out to see what was happening, as I was still out I heard your mother scream out to me, which prompted me to run home as fast as I could, and when I arrived I…saw someone holding you and plunging a kunai into your mother saying that this needed to be done to save the village. I roared out and leapt at him, but he sensed me coming and cut off my left arm and right leg. Then the coward ran off with you. I crawled over to your mother (sob. sob) and s-she held my cheek and told me to go protect you. Right after that she died." Naruto watched as his father struggled to hold back tears; it seemed even as a seal-placed image to be able to grieve. Drying his tears, his father continued, "Something in me snapped and all I could feel was anger. I transformed, my rage powering it so much that a new arm and leg burst forth. I let loose the greatest Howl I had ever done, filled with my rage, sorrow, and hope. Hope that I would be able to save you son." He looked over at his son in the eyes, silver to silver, and had the most serious face Naruto had seen so far, "Always remember son, even if a situation seems hopeless, even if it looks like you will die, to always keep fighting. Never give in, Never give up, and remember there is always hope. My ancestors were a group of defenders that existed before the ninja villages were founded. They were very family-oriented, had a great connection to the summon animals, and lived by three great ideals: Kenpei, Sekimu, and Chigiri."

"Unity? Duty? Destiny?" repeated Naruto.

"I'll explain more about them some other time son, I promise." answered his father

Naruto smiled and held out a closed fist to his father, "I'll hold you to that, they're my ancestors as well." his father smiled and hit fist with him.

"Okay back to where I was, I had just left your mother and was running to where I could smell you. To my horror it was where the Kyuubi was. As I got nearer I started to feel this horrible feeling, and when I arrived a saw the man painting a seal on you and then the Kyuubi burst out of the woods. The man cried the name of the two seals on you, the first being what's known as a special type of suppression seal which would force the sealers likeness onto the other person, sealing off the receivers abilities as well. The other seal was one called 'Shiki Fuuin' and the thing that terrified me most that night was when the Kyuubi shouted **'You damn fool! Those two seals will eventually kill that boy!' **the man just laughed and replied 'At least you shall join him where you belong demon!' That scared me the most so I waited 'till he finished before I rushed out and swiped at him, I don't know how but he still had some energy and we fought. Both of us were weak from our recent actions and he used you as a shield once, but only once I quickly cut off the hand that held you. In the end I was hit from behind when your Sandaime showed up. Apparently, the man told the Sandaime you were his son, to be told when you started at the ninja academy, so expect it to be coming soon, maybe even tonight and that you were to be treated as a hero for what you did. Thankfully the Sandaime only told you're council about what you carried and the man's final wish." the father to the cursed son paused then pointed to the mirror and finished, "the mirror will show that man."

Looking over Naruto could only ground out one name with his pupils narrowing to slits: "Yondaime".

-back to the mind-

Naruto had finally arrived to the door that to his mother's part of the instruction seal. "Well, here goes something." he knocked and as soon as it sounded the door flung open and a stunned Naruto was thrown into the room. When his feet touched down, he was immediately encircled in a ferocious hug that threatened his supply of air. As life was slowly strangled from him he thought he could hear a voice speaking so fast he likened it to a chipmunk.

"(cough) uh…Kaa-san?"

"Yes, my darling boy?"

"Can't….breathe. Let…go…please!" choked out the struggling boy.

"Sorry. (lightens hug which naruto returns) I'm just so glad to see you after all this time." She then pulled back and naruto got a good look at his mother for the first time he could remember. She had deep violet hair and forest green eyes. Her bodily build could be described as petite. "I'm so proud of how you've grown up."

"Hey, Kaa-san?" asked the son.

"Yes, Naruto."

"Tou-san said you had also left stuff behind for me and might tell me about them. Also, I was thinking about this as I was walking over, is my last name really, what is my last name?" questioned the young boy.

"Sorry Naruto, but I'm not going to tell you either. You'll have to find the stash yourself. But I can tell you your last name even though your father could have done it better. After all it came form the way his clan had operated. (sigh) Well, I'll just give you the short version. A child's last name was chosen because a summon animal would show and present them with a tattoo for later use in life. Now, you were a special case, two summon animals appeared but since one showed up before the other we decided to give you the last name of the first animal and shockingly in gratitude it granted you a special kind of tattoo. Tell me son, have you ever noticed on your back two tattoos' that look like wings?"

Shaking his head Naruto replied "No, but Tou-san said that there was a suppression seal placed on me by the yondaime."

Smirking his mother said "Well then, we'll just have to destroy that seal won't we, because right now you can't control your transformation. Right now, it'll only activate if you're feeling a very strong emotion. When we break it you'll be able to change when you want." she paused at the sound of chuckling. looking at her son revealed the location of the sound "Mind telling me what's so funny?'

"Just that you and tou-san get off track so easily." he said still chuckling. "Can we get back to the subject of my last name, even though I'm guessing it's probably guessing it's some kind of bird?"

"Well, looks like your father was right, you are smarter than you look."

"Yeah, but it's only recently that this started happening. I think that maybe the suppression seal broke some, that might be why my eyes are silver now and why my hair is a mixture of brown and blonde." pondering Naruto.

"Maybe, well this just means it'll be easier to destroy the seal. Anywho, back to your last name. You were right it was a bird, the koujaku (sparrow). That's the animal you're last name is. Now don't be disappointed (seeing her son's look) you can also summon wolves. They just didn't give you any gifts other than the tattoo, which if I remember correctly should be right over your heart."

"So, my name is Koujaku Naruto, sparrow's maelstrom? And why over my heart?"

"Yes and they did that to symbolize that you would always be welcomed by any wolf and never attacked by one. You'll still have to do hand seals to bring forth wolves, since they're your fighters. The sparrows you should use as messengers and all you should need to do is channel chakra and think of a sparrow. I'll explain more about the tattoo's on your back when you've destroyed the suppression seal. Now, listen, you have to go and find Kyuubi and ask it to help you get rid of the seal. It'll probably tell you to leave Konoha which is something you'll have to do in order to find the objects your father and I left for you. I'll tell right now where you should begin your search for my items. Go to Mizu no Kuni near Kirigakure. (grips son in another bone crushing hug) Good luck my son and know your father and I will always be proud of you and love you with all of hearts."

She lets him go and as he arrives at the door he turns back and asks "Kaa-san? I know you are a memory seal and all but do you know what happened to my real parents?"**(2)**

Smiling softly she told him, "They're waiting for you in a place of white where they are happy** (3**). You do not need to worry; they will be waiting for you when you are ready for your last adventure. Although your mother did tell me this: You better married and have some children before you get here." Laughing, although beat red, he exited the room "You will become a great person Naruto, I'm sure of it."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------in the sewers-

Naruto continued his journey to find the literal beast within him. "Damn it I forgot to ask Kaa-san what I should call myself and just how hard can it be to find a 900-foot tall, nine-tailed fox!"

"How about looking behind instead of forward?" questioned a voice from nowhere.

Spinning around Naruto saw a hallway that glowed red. Deciding that was his best course he followed it to the front of a giant cage that was held shut by a slip of paper. Suddenly the image of a red fox appeared startling Naruto. "Yes, this form is rather shocking isn't it?" The giant fox turned red and started shrinking, form changing to that of a…woman's! Where once stood the nine-tailed fox now was a woman who stood at about 5'8'', with fiery red locks of hair and surprisingly crystal blue eyes that seemed to shine. Her figure was nothing to laugh at as well, with larger than normal bust, a waist that wasn't too thin or large that had excellent curves on it which then flowed down into well toned and shapely legs. Thankfully she was thoughtful enough to be clothed in a ruby kimono that had red foxes running over it. She was a very beautiful woman. "So you're my container…great grandson?" she questioned. Now meeting three members of your family in one day, after living your life alone is bound to instill shock onto someone's mind and on an eight-year old, well causes them to faint.-thump- "(sigh) There he goes, oh well. Might as well get comfortable." She then changed the area behind the seal into a wide open field that had many rabbit holes (hey she's a vixen) with stars shining with great brilliance, as if they were jewels and a huge bed for her to lay on either in human or fox form. She then went to the bed and sat on it in a meditation pose waiting for her descendant to awake, and thinking of the days to come. _'What will they bring?'_

-30 minutes later-

The Kyuubi no Kitsune came out of her meditation at the sound of her great-grandson mumbling something. Coming closer to the gate and resting on her knees she listened to his sleep-talk. She thought she could vaguely hear about ramen and rabbit meat. She sat there as he woke up slowly as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes he turned to face her.

"What is your real name?" he questioned looking into her eyes, blue meeting silver.

Smiling lightly she said "Well, I'm sure you can guess what my last name is. So I'll simply tell you my first name Hidama, in fact I didn't receive my first name until I was eight and performed my first justu. The phoenix fire ball. As such I received the name Kitsune Hidama."

Naruto chuckled "Fox Fireball."

Hidama chuckled along with him "Hai, but do you want to know something else Naruto? The fox that appeared was a nine-tailed golden fox, Inari. When he arrived bearing the contract he decided to name me as his successor, so I became the next Kyuubi when Inari was chosen by Kami-sama to become the god of foxes and marriage. So, in effect you are the second to receive a gift from their animal, those tattoos on your back are traits from the sparrows. They are wings."

Naruto asked a question that came to him suddenly "How do you know this?"

His great obaa-san just smirked at him and responded with "Because I have something similar to those." She turned around and lifted up the back fold of her kimono showing that above her round ass there was a tattoo of a spiral made of nine fox tails that did not touch. Of course this action caused the young boy to turn bright red and turn his head away after seeing the mark** (5)**, but looked back when he heard popping noises. There wagged nine red fox tails. "I didn't know what the tattoo meant until I truly needed them. My guess is that your wings will not spread until there comes a time when you will need to soar. I can only hope that when you do need them you fly with all your heart's speed." She then retracted her tails and lowered her kimono back down.

"Obaa-chan, Kaa-chan said that I will need your help in breaking the suppression seal the Yondaime placed on me. I want to know when we should leave."

Hidama was about to speak when her head snapped to the side and a mirror rose up showing the hospital room Naruto lay in with the Sandaime sitting in a chair by the side holding some sort of scroll. "Why don't you wake up and speak with him. Tell him you have met me but only speak of my fox form. Also tell him as you were sleeping you drug up your memory of the night of the sealing and tell him…hmm… tell him that the werewolf was your true father and that the Yondaime had forcibly taken you from your parents. Finish it off with the suppression seal and that you need to leave to find the items your parent's heirlooms." At Naruto's nod she watched as he fazed out to the waking world. She then summoned to of the rabbits from the field with instructions to go to her grandson's and granddaughter-in-laws rooms and tell them to activate their mirrors to the outside world. The rabbits left and she turned her attention to the mirror which showed Naruto waking up and stretching.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The hospital room-

The first thing Naruto knew when he woke was that his first transformation seemed to be giving him a taste of what the growth part of puberty felt like, all of his bones and muscles ached. "(groan) Ow, hope I don't have to do that again sometime soon."

"Neither do I, Naruto-kun" spoke the aged fire shadow "No one should have to take a life at such a young age."

Naruto just smiled "Don't worry Ojii-san I won't if I have anything to say about that." His mood then sifted to serious "Jii-san we need to talk about some stuff."

The Hokage sensing Naruto's tone just nodded "Hai, even so Naruto I was going to speak with you tonight anyway. I'm sure you remember that day when you asked about your parents, I couldn't answer you then because it was not the time I had been told to tell you." Throughout this Naruto sat with a stoic expression on his face nodding at the part about him asking. "Well, I've come tonight to tell you that your father's name was Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage and your mothers name was Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina. He also left you this scroll containing his two most powerful techniques; the Rasengan and Hiraishin no jutsu." he held up the scroll which held the two techniques.

Naruto opened his eyes, startling Sarutobi by showing the shining silver orbs they had become through the break of the suppression seal, and started to chuckle which led to a full blown laugh, "You honestly expect me to believe that my father is the one who cursed me to this life?! No, that man is not my father."

"Now, Naruto I'm sure tha-" started Sandaime only to be interrupted by Naruto.

"No Jii-san, it won't take time for me to accept this, it simply isn't the truth." sitting up and lifting his shirt he showed him the seal on his stomach, the breaks in the spiral part shocking the Third " Yes Hokage-san the seal is breaking, but not the one holding Kyuubi.(cue startled look from Sandaime) Hai, I met when I was out it unlocked a sectioned of my memory from when I was born which, I found out was a full month before the Kyuubi was sent. You know what else I found out? My father and mother were not who you told me, in fact your precious Yondaime took me from them because there was no children in Konoha to use, were there? So, he planned to seal it into his dying body. But I guess he didn't find the prospect fighting it forever in a Shinigami's stomach too appealing. So he forcibly took me from my family when my mother said no." chuckles sadly. "Ojii-san, there's something you should know about the night of the sealing, you had a hand in the destruction of my family."

"But, the only thing I killed that…night…oh, Kami." he covered his face in his hands in the new found knowledge. "Naruto…why don't you hate me for that?"

Naruto put a hand on the Sandaime's shoulder "Because you only saw a monster attacking a man. You attacked out of both ignorance and concern. Never think I will hate you for that."

"Thank you Naruto-kun. (sigh) So, you have two seals placed on you."

Naruto shook his head in negative, "Not two, three. The first seals placed on me were from my parents in case they died before I could get to know them; they're instruction seals, the squiggles not connected to the circle, to aid me. The next one is this spiral suppression seal which was meant to hide what he knew I was. He even knew that placing that with the Shiki Fuuin', which is the circle that has the four squiggles connected in the spots resembling cardinal directions, he knew that placing those two together would eventually kill me, even the Kyuubi realized, I mean it even shouted that out and all the Yondaime replied was: 'At least you will join him where you belong demon'." He paused looking at his stomach. "It has started Hokage-Jiji, earlier this evening I felt searing pain down there." Naruto looks back up. "I'm going to have to leave Jii-san. Kyuubi-sama says that together we can break it but, from what it said it'll take a lot of its chakra. Just imagine what'll happen. Also I want to find the stuff they said they left for me in different locations."

The Sandaime sat there silent, then stood up and walked over to the window and looked out at the rising sun. Naruto got up and stood beside him. "(sigh) I suppose there isn't another way is there?" Naruto agrees with a nod "Well, I suppose that the most I can do is give you supplies, this scroll, and tell the council I'm sending you to somewhere, I'll figure it out later. If it means anything I'm sorry for what I did and didn't do that night."

"I can't accept that apology Jii-san" he looked up at his appointed grandfather, "because there's nothing to apologize for. You did what you felt was right at the time. Now I have to do what I feel is right. I'm going to go out and find my way. I'll live by my ancestor's ideals, the ideals of Kenpei, Sekimu, and Chigiri."

Sarutobi looked down in shock. "Those were the ideals my sensei's told me belong to a group of warriors who had worked directly for the fire daimyo. So, your father was descended from those people. If it's no problem I'd like to know which animal chose you."

"Two animals chose me, the Koujaku and the Ookami." Smirking at the dumbfounded expression on Sarutobi's face he continued, "The Koujaku gave me a special gift, maybe next time I'm around I'll show you what it is since I can't activate it until the suppression seal is gone."

Nodding the elderly Hokage turned to leave but turned back "I'll hold you to that Naruto-kun. I think you should leave tonight so that you can rest up. Is there anyone you'd like to speak to before you leave?"

Naruto nodded and answered "Anko Mitarashi."

Sarutobi nodded to him and left having placed the scroll on the hospital bed. After the Sandaime left Naruto went to look over the scroll left by the Yondaime, hey he may hate the man but, those were his two most powerful jutsu! No way was he giving those up. So, he settled down in his bed and read the details on these two techniques to wait for the woman he considered as the annoying older sister.

-Later (you decide by how much)-

Naruto had quickly fallen asleep after reading the scroll, his 8-year old attention span not allowing him to stay awake for too long. So, now he lay snoring in the bed the scroll hanging over the side of the bed, so peaceful, so innocent, so unaware of the shadow sneaking up to him.

The shadow lowered its head, opened its mouth, and drew in breath.

"WAKE UP GAKI!!!" "Waugh!!"

Naruto shot up straight to the ceiling and clung to it like a cat, only he didn't have a cats nails so, gravity pulled him down by the heaviest part of his body, in his case his head, straight to the tile floor.

"gagh!" Shooting up, grasping his head, he turned to the cause of his pain and shouted "What the hell were you doing you crazy nut-case!" which brought another pain to his head and the indignant shout of:

The figure got an indignant look on its face, "Who are you calling a nut-case you shrimp!?"

"Well gee; I don't know maybe the woman standing before me with purple hair who shouted at someone sleeping in a hospital when they were injured! And I'm not a shrimp, I grew a couple inches can't you see." gesturing to the height he once stood at and his new height.

"Eh, who cares you'll always be a shrimp to me otoutou. Now what's this about you leaving, cause if you are who'll go on dango sprees with me?" questioned the now known crazy woman sitting down in a chair.

Naruto went and sat down on the bed, "Well nee-chan, do you want the long version or the short?"

"Short shrimp." smirked Anko.

"Ha, very funny. Ok, short version: experience pain in stomach, go for a moonlight walk, get attacked by a vampire, partially break a suppression seal placed on me thus allowing me to access my heritage by transforming into a hybrid of vampires and Lycans,werewolves, killed vampire, discover instruction seals left by parents, learn my true last name,(deep breath) found out I have Kyuubi sealed inside me and was forcibly taken from my parents by the Yondaime , don't tell this next part to the old man, discovered that the Kyuubi, whose real name is Kitsune Hidama, is my great-grandmother and that she was chosen by Inari-sama to be his replacement as the Kyuubi, found out the combo of the suppression seal and great-grandma's seal would kill me and that Yondy didn't care,(another deep breath) which was the pain that started all this, Hidama-baa-chan said we could break the suppression seal but we'd need to leave because of all the chakra we'd use, and finally that my parents left stuff for me out there, that Yondy lied to Jii-san about him being my father and that he stupidly for him left me a scroll for his two most powerful jutsu's; Rasengan and Hiraishin no jutsu. Oh and that Obaa-chan has bigger err assets than you." finished Naruto to a stunned Anko, she was stunned by the story, that the Kyuubi no Kitsune was female and related to the boy in front of her, and that she had bigger tits than her, and hers were currently the biggest in Konoha, or were thanks to this new information.

Anko ran a hand through her hair and chuckled "Well, I guess we can say for certain that you have had a screwy life Naru-chan." "Don't call me that." "Also you say she had bigger assets than these (points at her boobs causing naruto to blush and look away** (5) **as he nods) heh, sounds like a woman I could get along with." Her mood turns somber and prompts "So, you're really going aren't you?"

"Hai nee-chan, (smiles) but you don't have to worry, I'll be fine and I promise to come back one day and show up where ever you are at that moment with a bang." he held out a fist to her, "And I'm always going to keep my promises no matter what it costs me."

Anko smiled back at him and reached out to ruffle his blond/brown hair. "I know you will. So I expect to see you before I die so I can make fun of you just to annoy you."

Scowling playfully Naruto said "Well, that's not very good incentive for me to see you again is it?"

Anko hooked a finger to her chin and admitted "True." she then smirked evilly and put her head next to his ear and said playfully "But maybe as a reward depending on if you survive and how _mature_ you are, I might give you the privilege of an unobstructed view of my…upper bodies special features." this of course caused Naruto to faint from the overtaxing of his tiny mind. "Don't worry Naruto; I know you'll make it back, if anything when you get older for the promise of the free view of a woman's cleavage." Laughing she got up and jumped out the window, the shattering rebooting Naruto's bodily movements.

Looking over at the smashed window he shook his head muttering about 'crazy women with purple hair'. He then slipped into a meditative position.

"Now I wait."

-Later that night at the Main Gate-

Two figures stood outside the main gate to Konoha in the dark, one tall, the other short with something round and long attached to his back.

"Well jii-san, guess this is it for now" the small figure grips the taller figure in a hug, "I'll see you when I see you if you're still alive by then."

"Good luck and good fortune to you Naruto. I hope you find your find parents items and a place to become strong." replied the Sandaime Hokage.

Naruto released the hug and stepped out onto the path. He looked back and said "If you want to see what I do with the wolf tattoo, stick around." He turned back, placed his hand over his heart where a tattoo depicting a wolfs head was, applied chakra to it, performed his necessary half-seals to summon a real wolf in this world and sounded a long, piercing whistle. After a minute there was a rustling to the right and a gray wolf with a silver stripe running down his back and golden eyes came out and approached Naruto who placed the hand he had over his heart onto the wolf's head. What happened next none could have predicted. A bright flash erupted from where the boy's hand met the wolf's head. When it cleared Naruto and the wolf were both rubbing their left eyes, also there was a stripe of gray running through Naruto's hair and a small stripe of earthy brown ran from his head and down to the tip of his tail. Well, that and there was the small detail of him having grown to size of a horse.

"Well, that was weird." he removed his hand showing a golden eye.

"_**Hai that was." **_growled the wolf removing his paw showing a silver eye.

Naruto froze, looked at the wolf and chuckled softly, "So, any idea what just happened err?"

"_**My name is Silver Arrow. Koujaku Naruto, it would appear as if I have become your familiar among the wolves. It is a great honor for any animal of any summoned race. In fact your father's familiar was my brother, I'll be sure you meet him sometime."**_ Arrow then snickered, which of course made Naruto ask "What's so funny?" _**"It's just that this puts my name up for consideration as the next boss of the wolf's contract. Ha, you ain't leaving me in the dust bro."**_

"Seriously?!"

"_**Hai, Naruto. After all the current bosses of the toads, slugs, and swallow contracts were familiars to their respective summoners. Jiraiya for the toads, Tsunade for the slugs and your great-grandfather for the swallows although I do not know his first name. Just that he had Koujaku, same as you." **_stated the wolf familiar.

Smiling Naruto bowed to Arrow, an action that was reciprocated. "Arigatou Arrow. I hope we can become great together."

"_**Oh we will pup, we will. Now I sense we got us a long journey ahead so hop on my back and we'll get moving."**_

-Sarutobi's P.o.V. of the conversation-

I watched as Naruto-kun conversed with a wolf that he seemed to understand although I had no idea what the wolf was saying to him. When Naruto climbed on its back I knew this would be the last I would see of him for a while. So, I quickly whipped out a camera and took a picture of Naruto sitting on the wolf's back. I would be sure to make a copy for Anko.

-back to the story-

"Well, goodbye Jii-san, I hope to see you again someday." said Naruto from atop Arrow.

"As do I Naruto, now get going. Take with you this traveling advice my father told me: 'It's a dangerous business going out into the world, if you don't keep your feet and your head there's no telling what mess you may end up in."

"I'll do my best to remember that Jii-san. (Arrow then turns to head off into the night)Goodbye and tell Anko nee-chan I'll hold her to her word when I get back!" With that he was gone, racing down the road off to Mizu no Kuni, the location of his mother's items.

"Hmmm, I wonder what Anko said to him, eh, not my place to know. I wonder when Jiraiya's next book is coming out?" wondered the Sandaime as he enters the village he guarded.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-A week later at the border between Hi no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni-

So here they are after traveling thru Fire country during the days they had finally reached the end of the forest. Now, they were resting in a clearing they had decided would be their camp for the night with a fire roaring in front of them. One was remembering the information his mother had given him two days ago about her clan…flashback time!

-Naruto's section of mind that his 'mother' is in-

Naruto sat with his mother at a table she a conjured up sipping at the delectable noodle dish they both loved.

He looked at his mother wondering why she brought him here tonight.

As if reading his mind she started speaking. "Naruto-kun, I brought you here to this little section of your mind that I live in because I wanted to tell you about my family line since your father already told you when you met him." she stopped and took away the table and replaced it with two piles of cushions for them to rest on. "Anyway, our family goes farther back than your father's, back to a time when chakra couldn't yet be used and the elemental countries weren't around yet. Our family started back in a country that was called Greece. We were extremely gifted blacksmiths that ancient Greeks claimed to have been instructed by the god of fire and the forge who was at the time called Hephaestus. Our family was even called upon to craft the armor and weapons that were used by a great warrior at the time called Achilles and his soldiers the Myrmidons. Then over 300 years later the faction of Greeks known as the Spartans came to us to craft their armor and weapons as well." Shrugging her shoulders she continued "That's how we started out and throughout the ages, spreading out and expanding what we made and after those we made it for died we went to the site and took back our works. Now, they're stored in the cave, in caverns enhanced by expansion seals because there was so much. I forget when, but we eventually became allies with your fathers' family and we started making weapons for them." She then smirked, "Naruto, even though you come from a family of blacksmiths who make extraordinary weapons remember that anything and everything can be a weapon, even other people and fish." Both chuckled at that.

"Kaa-san you're driving me up the wall with anticipation here." He look up at her with mock torture on his face, and whined "why are you torturing me like this?"

She reached over and ruffled her son's hair, "Because it's a parent's job to torture their children. Now go on dawn's breaking and you still have a ways to go."

They both stood up and Naruto gave his mother a good-bye hug. He then faded out to join the land of living.

-Back at the fire-

"You know there's something I always wondered Arrow." stated Naruto out of the blue.

"_**What would that be?"**_

"Why is fire country called fire country? The other nations names fit their features, why is Fire country different?"

"_**Eh, how should I know? I'm just a wolf. Anyway, (he turns his head to Naruto) when will you be ready to break the seal?"**_

"Baa-chan said she would be ready tomorrow, the burst from yesterday took a lot out of her. I can't wait to be rid of it, it's really driving me crazy, being one person and yet having my true side kept down." He stopped and stared into the flames before them. Arrow looked at him then followed his lead. A comfortable silence took them. Naruto looked up to the sky after a while. It truly was a marvelous night, not a cloud in the sky above him, although there did look to be some off to the south. But despite even the calming sight of the night's sky he couldn't shake this bad feeling off him

(a galaxy far, far away)

On a giant battleship in space two men stood in a room garbed in brown cloaks. The shorter man turned to the taller man and agreed with Naruto, although he didn't know it, "I have a bad feeling about this."

**(a/n: Sorry, couldn't resist that.)**

(back with the boy and his wolf)

Err, where was I? oh, yeah.

This bad feeling, just like the night a week ago would prove to have solid grounds which will be defined as

(piercing scream)

Both boy and wolf leapt to their feet, well actually Naruto leapt onto Arrows back and together they rode of to south.

-Some distance away-

When the duo arrived at the area where the scream came from they saw a young figure surrounded by ice and wood. Naruto got off his familiar and approached the encirclement slowly. As he drew closer he could make out a small girl, dressed in what had probably been good clothes were now rags, kneeling in the middle sobbing silently.

Gently he spoke "Hey, are you okay?"

The girl looked over at him with tear-stains over her face. She spoke in a hoarse, quiet voice, "Don't come closer."

"Why not?" "I'm a monster. I killed my father."

Upon hearing this Naruto knew he had to get closer. But each time he approached either the ice would shoot out or the wood would bar his path.

"Why did you kill your father?" asked Naruto of the girl.

"Tou-san killed Kaa-san, then he came to kill me, always yelling out monster, abomination." she replied. As she spoke Naruto noticed that the amount of ice and wood shrunk. He came up with a plan.

"I don't see a monster. How can you name yourself as such?"

She turned her brown eyes over to him "My mother was a dragoness who had a human form. She was of the ice breed and had trained herself to be able to wake the trees and plants to do what she commanded." She turned her head down as tears fell. "She was very beautiful and kind. Eyes the shade of ice, yet with warmth not found in ice, and hair as rich a green as can be found in the fullest of trees. She told me that as her child I would gain the same control over the same elements, and as a half-dragon while I couldn't turn into a full dragon, I would still have dragon-ish features when I grew older." The young girl shook her head, "But then tou-san saw her teaching me to control ice once. He assumed it was a bloodline limit and gathered a mob. They killed her, (sob) a-and I ki-killed them." she stopped to break in fresh tears.

Naruto came up and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. As soon as he did she gripped him back muttering that she didn't want to, that she missed her mother. Naruto started to rub her back calming her down, "Shhhh…You don't have to worry now, and he can't hurt except in your dreams. Your mother is in a good place now and will be waiting there for you to come. You will meet her again, but not yet." She finally quieted. "Not yet."

The girl let go and sat back looking at Naruto, actually seeing him now. "You know something? Your eyes don't match." she giggled "And those whisker marks on your face are cute."

Naruto just looked at the girl before him then sighed, "These marks, they weren't there when I was born." the girl before him shows a confused look which Naruto didn't see as he was looking at the ground, "On…a night a month after my birth, some person crept into the room I was sleeping in and cut with a scalpel that had been dipped in a special poison and cut these blasted marks on my face."

Gasping she put her hands over her mouth and whispered "Why?"

Naruto looked around their location and said "I think that this is a very good place to talk about it. Plus talk is always better to listen to on a full stomach." He shook his head and smiling looked back at her, "Wait! It has just occurred to me that throughout this whole conversation I have yet to ask a certain question. What is your name?"

The girl smiled and said "Koori Haku."

Naruto laughed at the pun "yes, snow is white." Haku crossed her arms and pouted. "Fine, fine. I'm sorry. I'm Koujaku Naruto." beckons Arrow over "And this big furball, (the wolf growled at him) what!? You are rather furry." Looks at Haku, "This here is Silver Arrow."

"Silver Arrow?" Naruto nods, "Why is he called that?"

Naruto opens his mouth, pauses, turned his head to Arrow and asks "You know she's got a good question there, why is your name Silver Arrow." The wolf growled and barked out something. "So, that explains the scar on your foot." Naruto nodded and turned back to Haku who looked curious at the sight. "He says that when he was born a stray silver arrow hit him in the foot, thus he was named Silver Arrow. He's my familiar, that's why only I can understand what he says, well at least amongst humans anyway." Haku nodded smiling. "Now come on, I've got a fire roaring back at my camp and I was just going to eat." He hops up onto Arrow and holds out a hand to which Haku looked hesitant at, "You don't have to worry, the only way you'll fall off his back is if you jump off."

Smiling Haku grabbed the hand and got on in front of Naruto. They then left the place their paths intertwined and set out for the camp. A roaring fire, good food, and a promised explanation.

**End of chapter!**

Alright next chapter we have Naruto explaining his heritage and the sealing to Haku. Along with the breaking of the suppression seal and what Naruto should really look like. (at least in this story)

So, what did you all think?

(1)For more accurate description watch Michael Corvin's hybrid transformation on the movie: Underworld.

(2)Remember this is only an image made by the instruction seal.

(3)Take a guess, for those who answer correctly will get a cookie and the knowledge of where the sequel will take place.

(4)No, she won't be paired with Naruto, she'll just tease him from time to time, after all she is a fox. Foxes love mischief.

(5)This'll be part of my first polls. see below.

**Poll 1: Which village should Naruto join from the list below?**

**A: Kiri (got an idea of how it'll work)**

**B: Kumo (same as above)**

**C: other? (don't pick Konoha; he'll be visiting for the chunin exam from canon)**

**Poll 2: should I have Zabuza train the two (Haku &Naruto) while they're still in mist?**

**A: Yes**

**B: No**

**Review, if only to just answer the questions.**


	2. Friend made, Sensei decided

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other ideas, lines, weapons, clothes, and/or names from other books, manga, fan fictions, and/or movies.

Unknown-nin345: Hello readers, I'm back sorry about taking so long but I had to study for a couple big tests as well as having to suffer the agony of a crashed computer.

The poll's are closed although I may have more in later chapters the two from chapter 1 are closed and my decision has been made.(also as a notice I'll be calling Naruto's wolf familiar shippou-silver 'k, 'k.

Just to let you know I'll be updating weekly from now on.

-Back in front of the campfire (same night as end of last chapter)-

Naruto and Haku sat across each other by the fire munching on fish that Naruto had caught earlier from a nearby river with Shippou laying close to the fire, his head on his paws basking in the warmth. Naruto finished his fish and stared into the fire, both waiting for his new companion to finish her fish and mulling over what he was about to tell her. Looking up when he heard Haku clear her throat he sighed 'Oh well, here goes something'.

He looked into the fire and started speaking "Since you told me a bit about your family I'll tell you a bit about mine. My father was a Lycan," seeing her confused expression he decided to elaborate "A Lycan is a werewolf that can control when he or she can transform into their wolf form. (Haku's confused look dissipates). My mother was a human until she was bitten by a vampire, crazy huh?" at her astounded, numb nod he continued "Of course had certain events not occurred I would most likely be a Lycan myself, but I'm not." he paused shortly, preparing himself "1 week ago, as I was walking in the woods near Konohagakure when I was attacked by a vampire, he tried to bite me to kill me when I transformed, but not into a Lycan." he shook his head a somber look appearing on his face, " When the vampire bit me he eliminated the last bit of human left in me, strengthening the vampire part thus making it so I couldn't turn into a Lycan." he shrugged "So I became the second hybrid in the history of Lycans and vampires. I killed the vampire who attacked me and fell unconscious and met three of my family members."

Haku interrupted "But, how? If you're out here with only Shippou aren't they alive?"

Naruto got a sad smile and shook his head "No, they aren't alive. This ties into why I have theses whisker marks on my face." he took a deep breath to steady himself, "Eight years ago, a month after I was born Inari-sama's messenger the Kyuubi no Kitsune was sent to Konoha to take back a Kekkai Genkai whose wielders had proved they were unworthy of it. Of course those people had become arrogant with it and refused to listen to a kami's order, so they attacked the Kyuubi who defended herself" he chuckled at Haku's shocked look "Yes the Kyuubi no Kitsune is female. Anyway, my tou-san and kaa-san lived in a small village outside of Konoha but, they couldn't leave because kaa-san was a little weak from giving birth so they had to stay in the village." he then got tears in his eyes because of the event that came next, "Tou-san had left the house to check on the position of the Kyuubi when he heard my mother shout out with his sensitive hearing. He rushed back to the house to see someone holding me and stabbing my mother with a kunai. Tou-say shouted out and rushed him but the man quickly cut off his arm and leg. Tou-san crawled over to kaa-san and she held his cheek as she died and with (he stops to hold back tears) and with her last breath asked Tou-san to go protect me. Tou-san watched as the life left her eyes and accessing the deepest bowels of the rage he felt transformed regenerating his arm and leg while doing so and took off, following my scent. He…arrived at where the Man's location and watched as the man placed an akkon fuuin (impression seal) on me when the Kyuubi arrived. The man, who was the '_oh so great Yondaime Hokage'_ (said mockingly) proceed to seal the Kyuubi into me." Amidst Haku's shocked look he raised his shirt revealing the seal. Haku gasped and looked at it noticing the partial spiral. She shot him a questioning look and he explained "The spiral is the akkon fuuin; the breaks in it signify that the seal is weakening. Tomorrow I'm going to break it." he shook his head "Anyway back to the story, after tou-san saw Kyuubi get sealed within me he attacked the Man and came close to killing him when he was hit by a Kunai from the Sandaime Hokage." he paused "Lycans when killed in their transformed state do not shift back to humans, so he never knew what he did." he looked up at her and decided to quickly wrap up the last part. "Now what I meant by meeting them is this. At birth they had placed Kyouji (instruction) fuuins on me on birth so that if they died before they could teach me I would still be able to learn of my heritage." He smiled softly "And finally, something that I learned while I was unconscious." He cleared his throat "The Kyuubi no Kitsune? She's my great grandmother and her name is Kitsunes Hidama."

Haku's jaw had dropped from shock, it wasn't often you met someone who's own relative was sealed in them. She finally managed to bring her jaw up amidst Naruto's chuckling. Pouting she crossed her arms "Hey, don't laugh at me! It's not like I expected that explanation." Still pouting she turned her head to the side and hmmphed.

Still chuckling the boy apologized "Sorry Haku-chan, it was just a little funny."

Nodding she accepted his apology and they both looked into the fire as silence took up residence. Naruto looked up into the sky and saw it was late. He pulled out a scroll from his backpack getting a look of curiosity from Haku and unsealed two blankets. Rolling up the scroll he moved over next to Shippou and motioned Haku over as well, "It's getting late, I think we should head to sleep now." Getting a nod from his friend he lay down leaning against Shippou's soft, warm fur with Haku coming down next to him. When she was settled he spread a blanket over her and him, and then bade his familiar and Haku goodnight receiving a grunt and 'goodnight' in return respectively. He closed his eyes and sped for the wondrous world of dreams.

-The Next Day-

When Haku woke up the next morning she noticed that it was close to noon and that her wolf pillow had been replaced with a normal pillow. Sitting up she saw that Naruto was off on the other side of the clearing doing something and that Shippou was nowhere to be seen. When she stood up Naruto noticed and shouted out a greeting "Morning Haku-Chan! Shippou's gone off hunting somewhere for lunch." Nodding Haku walked over to see what her new friend was doing, when she got there she saw what looked to be a quarter of a small circle of Kanji with words showing up like: 'barrier' and 'dome'. She decided to find out more on what was happening. "Naruto-kun, what are you doing?"

Naruto didn't even pause in his work as he answered, "I'm, with help from Hidama-baachan, making a barrier."

"For what?"

"When Baa-chan and I go to break the seal tonight it's going to use a lot of chakra, and since Shippou and I didn't think we'd meet anyone hadn't planned on needing a barrier to hold it back. He wouldn't need to be protected since he's my familiar but you'll need protection. So, when the time comes you stand in here and I'll activate the kanji, thus making a barrier to protect you." He looked up at her. "I don't want you to get hurt so I'm making this."

Haku got a small blush on her face when he said that last sentence. She nodded and then noticed that Shippou arrived dragging what seemed to be two does. When the wolf brought them by the fire pit he plopped down and started huffing and puffing, _**"Geez (huff…huff) I'm not going to do that again. Maaan, my jaw hurts now."**_ He whined. Naruto chuckled while Haku fetched a bowl and bottle of water; pouring the water in the bowl she set the bowl in front of Shippou. Shippou gave her a thankful lick eliciting a giggle from her and drank the water in the bowl before him.

As Naruto continued making the needed kanji Haku started doing the best she could at skinning the two doe and cutting off their meat. This of course resulted in her getting messy and Naruto laughing at her which got him a thrown liver in his mouth which he spit out gagging at the bad taste which got Haku giggling with Shippou barking (literally) out laughter. Naruto shot his wolf familiar a mock betrayed look "Oh sure, side with her traitor." Shaking his head with a smile he got back to working on the barrier muttering about traitorous wolves.

-That Night-

Both Naruto and Haku are silent and staring into the fire, Shippou had left a while ago to get himself his own dinner. Suddenly Naruto shot his head up and looked over at Haku and said "It's time, you have to get inside the kanji circle now." Haku nodded and both got up to jogged to the symbols. When they got there Haku stood in the middle, careful to not step on any of the markings, while Naruto knelt down and after receiving a nod pushed his silvery chakra into the seals on the ground causing a silvery translucent dome to spring up. Naruto stood up, wobbled a little before straightening and smiled a toothy grin at the worried face of his friend who smiled shakily back.

He had backed away from the dome when he suddenly felt searing pain from his stomach eliciting a shout of pain from him.

'**Naruto-kun!' **shouted Naruto's obaa-chan from inside his mind.

'B...baa-chan, what's going on?!' Shouted Naruto back as well, crying out in pain in the real world.

'**I've started channeling my chakra. You need to channel all that you can of yours in order to help me break it.'**

'I'll do my…best' finishing his thought he started channeling every last drop of his chakra, which started to circle around him and erupt like a silver bonfire, screaming hard from the pain it was causing him.

Over in the dome Haku could only watch with tears in her eyes at the pain her friend had to go through. She wanted to do something to help but she knew that without this barrier she would be getting hurt as well. So, she stood with tears streaming down her face watching and waiting. She turned in surprise when Shippou burst out of the forest and started making his way slowly to Naruto, due to the fact that since they were bonded he could feel some of Naruto's pain as well. As Shippou was moving towards his screaming friend Haku could see that the wolf still had blood dripping from his mouth _'He gave up his own meal to come help Naruto-kun.'_ More tears gathered in her eyes at how useless she felt at the moment _'I promise Naruto-kun, I'll find someway in the future to help you. I won't be useless for a friend.'_

_-_In a clearing some distance away-

The large chakra bursting from Naruto was noticed by two people who had settled down for the night. One adult and one child looked up feeling the chakra wave washing over them. Both jumped up and looked at each.

The child spoke up, "Should we go see whatever is sending out this much chakra?"

The adult pondered for a second before nodding. "Yes, but be careful Kakan** (1)**." He picked up his large sword that was in the shape of a large kitchen cleaver.

Kakan nodded back, "Of course Zabuza-sama."

They then started moving towards where our hero is, one by jumping through trees, the other through them.

-Back with Naruto & Haku-

Oblivious to the thoughts of Haku, Shippou pressed forward to Naruto despite the pain he felt. He wouldn't just let his friend suffer by himself, so he drove on forward until he passed through the bonfire of chakra and collapsed next to Naruto. Now that he was inside the bonfire he could see the changes the boy before him was experiencing.

All that was on Naruto's mind however was the pain he was going thru. He could feel his bones breaking and renitting themselves; cells were burning away and being remade; all in all he felt like shit and that was putting it mildly. If he had a mirror he would see that his hair was loosing all the blonde coloring in it, replaced by an earthy brown with the silver arrowhead stripe running down the middle with it lengthening and falling out of its clumped spiky-ness. Now only the top of his head was standup-spiky although not in clumps but strands with the rest falling down to the top of his back/bottom of his neck** (2**). His face, due to all the chakra flying about, had been drained of the baby fat that had been there, leaving him with and angular face and slightly pointed jaw line. Finally one of his whisker marks faded away, leaving him only with two that became more diagonal than horizontal in appearance.

Down at his feet Shippou was also experiencing minor changes. The earthy brown stripe running down his back gained more color, so that instead of looking faded it stood out solidly and spreaded out to go down his legs making his paws brown. His muscles also were becoming leaner, more powerful. Little did they know but his voice box was also altering as well.

The chakra started to die down finally and Haku noticed that the barrier was fading out. It was gone the same time as the chakra finished dying down revealing Naruto, whose shirt had been burned off revealing his wolf head tattoo over his heart, to her. Seeing that he was hurt she rushed forward and caught him as he was falling. She then dragged him back to the fire which was still burning for some reason, Shippou sluggishly following, and dropped him onto one of the futons laid out and Shippou just plopped down next to him. She winced when she heard the thud expecting a groan or grunt of pain, but sweat-dropped when he started to snore.

She spun around when she a thump and saw a man with a large sword on his back standing at the edge of the firelight. A tense silence followed…but was comically broken when a boy tripped out of one of the bushes behind the man, causing said man to sweat-drop and Haku to look confused. _'Who are these people?'_ she thought with a little bit of trepidation.

The man spoke up to the boy "Kakan, we really got to work on your stealth."

The boy shot up and spoke with indignation "It's not this one's fault that root came up out of nowhere!"

The man went over and clunked Kakan on his head "What did I tell you about shouting?!"

Rubbing his head the boy responded "Only shout when there's no enemies' nearby." getting a questioning look from Zabuza he snapped his finger "Or when you're cussing someone out, right Zabuza-sama?'

Nodding his head Zabuza smiled behind his bandages "Damn right."

"Ehrm…excuse me?"

Both looked over to the timid form of Haku "Uhm... if you two want you can stay at our camp tonight."

Zabuza looked down at Kakan who looked up at him, looking back he asked "One thing though, that brat behind you." indicating the snoring boy "Was he the cause of that chakra wave just now?" The young girl's sudden nervous posture gave him his answer, "We'll stay but I'd like to ask him about that."

The girl relaxed and nodded her head "Although I don't know how much he'll tell you."

Zabuza just waved it off, "Eh he can tell what he wants to tell." Both of them came over to the fire allowing Haku to get a good look at the both of them.

The boy was as tall as Naruto. He had smoky-white hair as well as jade green eyes. Also on his back, placed diagonally was Jo-staff that looked to be about 5 feet long and had purple tape in the middle of it. The man whose name she now knew was Zabuza looked from what she could see to be a couple inches short of six feet. He had bandages wrapped on his face up to his nose ridge and his hitai-ate displaying his allegiance to Kirigakure was tilted a little with the metal piece being on the side of his head. He wore a standard jounin uniform complete with flak jacket.

They settled down for the night with Haku and Kakan falling asleep after little time had passed. Zabuza stayed up longer staring into the fire thinking on the tattoo he could see on Naruto's chest._ 'I wonder…could this brat be related to sensei? Hmm, well he's got the tattoo and that wolf is probably his familiar like sensei's tiger. I guess I'll just have to find out in the morning'_ With that he relaxed and let himself drift off to an alert sleep.

-The Next Day-

Everyone at the campsite was up and waiting for the now brunette boy to wake as well.

Haku was sitting by Shippou scratching the area behind his ears when they received the first shock of the morning.

"**Oh yeah keep scratching right there." **Silence and shocked looks were shown on everyone's face as they stared at Shippou who had a confused look on his face. Looking around at them he asked **"What? There something on my face?"**

Kakan spoke in an awed voice "You just talked, that you did."

Shippou's eyes widened and looked at himself in shock **"What!? But, you all shouldn't be able to understand me. Only Naruto should."**

…Speaking of which…

Over with our favorite blond-turned-brunette, he was currently meditating with his father in his mindscape. Yet, even though they were in there he could still what was going on in the outside world they could hear all that was spoken around Naruto's body in the real world. Naruto and his father were wondering about that as well and were discussing how it could have happened.

"I don't know son, he's a normal wolf and although you did summon him to you others shouldn't be able to understand him." His father said with arms crossed holding his chin.

"Could it have been when we broke the seal? All that chakra that was flying around could have done something." suggested the younger brunette.

The elder brunette nodded his head "That could have been the cause. Maybe you should go see obaa-san. She might be able to shed some light on this."

Naruto complied and left the room. He jogged over to the location of his great-grandmother's place in his mindscape. When he came to a stop in front he called her over and explained the situation with Shippou and what he and his father had come up with.

She affirmed it "Yes that is the cause. You see it was changed because it was your chakra that was flaring about so it's highly probable that he would have been affected. Just be glad that this was all that happened." Naruto nodded his head in agreement. She clapped her hands together. "Good! Now that that's settled, it's time for you to wake up." With a quick burst of her chakra Naruto was abruptly sent to the world of the living.

-The camp-

The confusion was temporarily brought to a halt by the groaning of the one they had been waiting for. A raw throat and aching body is what Naruto first experienced on his return to the world of waking. Gingerly he tried to sit up only for Haku to push him back down, "You go through a painful thing like that last night and you want to start moving around?" cue sheepish look, and "You're plain crazy Naruto-kun. Now I want you to rest not move around until at least tonight okay?"

Naruto tried to respond but found his throat too dry to cooperate; rubbing his throat Haku got the message he needed a drink. Grapping a random bottle that was close by she gave it to him. Weakly, without looking to see what it was, he raised it to his lips and chugged down the whole bottle earning him surprised looks to the two newcomers.

Zabuza raised an eyebrow (a/n: don't worry he's gonna lose them.) at this "Geez gaki. You're throat must definitely be dry to chug down a whole bottle of sake." Haku shot him a surprised look and turned back, with worried features, to Naruto who hadn't even paused in his drinking despite the voice of his father shouting 'NOOO! DON'T DRINK THAT!' Finished he put it aside and mumbled "Blegh that was some funny tasting water." What happened next could only be described as a disaster. His eyes became half-lidded and rosy ovals appeared on his cheeks. He then stood up swaying crazily. Zabuza's eyes widened as he recognized what had happened to Naruto. Moving quickly he swept up the other two children and shushined them to the other end of the clearing. Before he shushined back he told them to stay where they were. Going back he saw that Naruto was swinging the wolf by its tail. Before he could react the wolf was flying at him with tears waterfalling out of its eyes. They were both sent rolling when Shippou crashed into Zabuza, remember: Shippou is the size of a small horse. They both staggered up as Shippou asked, **"Just what the hell is going on!? I look around when I heard you poof out of hear, next thing I know he's swinging me around by my tail singing 'Ring around the roses.'!"**

Zabuza explained his suspicions while keeping an eye on the boy, who was currently looking at his giant sword, "It was seem that the gaki over there is a Suiken fighter. An apparently strong one if he could-" He stopped bug-eyed as Naruto lifted the blade up with one hand and spun around throwing it at them, oh and did I mention it was moving at very high speeds? They both dived out of the way and watched as the sword flew about ten or so more feet and fell to the ground with a clang. Zabuza rushed over and grabbed his sword. Then proceeded a game of cat and mouse with Zabuza trying to knock Naruto out but it was proving difficult seeing as a Suiken users speed and fighting ability shot up depending on the amount of alcohol they consumed. This game continued for several minutes when Naruto suddenly tripped and fell to the ground. Zabuza cautiously examined him, he heard the snoring but was still wary, and being familiar with a style even though you don't use it is extremely helpful. He crept closer to the drunken Suiken user before him when the boy leapt up and flipped over his head.

Thinking quickly he swung his sword and brought the flat side down, hard, on top of the brats head eliciting an questioning shout of "ORO?!". The boy then slunk down unconscious as Zabuza plopped down surprisingly tired from the chase. He beckoned the shocked wolf over, "Shippou I'm tired as hell right now and I don't have much energy, go fetch the brats over at the other side of the clearing." he asked pointing in the direction of Haku and Kakan. The wolf nodded and ran to get them. Zabuza sighed and looked down at the boy who currently had swirly eyes, muttering about flying ramen bowls. Zabuza chuckled at the sight while thinking _'This boy, if were to be trained to fight like that he could be a very good fighter. Hmm, I could train the three of them, but how? And in what?'_ He was brought out of his musings by the arrival of Shippou carrying Haku and Kakan. Haku seeing the state of Naruto jumped of the wolf and quickly moved over to kneel beside him, looking up at Zabuza she asked incredulously "What did you do to him?"

Zabuza shrugged nonchalantly "Hit him in the head with the flat side of my zanbatou." Suddenly a rock was pelted at his head. "Ghah!" looking over at Kakan he growled, "And just why did you do that Kakan?"

He responded with a shrug "This one feels that you could have been less rough Zabuza-dono. You could have just hit a pressure point, that is."

Zabuza sweat dropped at that, truth was he just wanted to hit something, so he kinda forgot about pressure points, "Would you believe me if I said I forgot?"

"Hai." was the answer that Kakan didn't even need to think about.

Everyone face faulted at the way he answered so quickly. Everyone turned their heads at Naruto's second groan of waking of the morning. He sat up and put his face in his hands, "Guh, did anyone get the kanji of what hit me? My head feels like its splitting open here."

Zabuza spoke up "Well brat for one, I hit you with my sword and two; you drank sake and went into a drunken frenzy. Hell, you even managed to spin the wolf here."

Naruto looked up quickly and over to his familiar who nodded. "Cool, so…what? Do I have some sort of cool Kekkai Genkai that makes me stronger when I get drunk?"

Zabuza threw back his head and roared with laughter to the confusion of the children. "Ahahahaha!! Whoo…oh I haven't a good laugh like that in a long time. But no, it's a random thing that's involved with genes, eh I don't know the whole story, never was one for science." Shaking his head he got back on track, "Err, anyway. There are just certain people everywhere who are born natural's at certain taijustu styles, as well as those who when they drink enter a drunken fury. Now there's this certain style called Suiken, which grows in power with higher amounts of alcohol consumed. This style, even though most of its power comes from the drunkenness of the user can still be pretty powerful on it's own since it's extremely unpredictable and fast-flowing. But, there comes with it a small danger of you attacking your allies since you are of course, drunk. Do you understand Naruto?"

Naruto pondered this for a second before he grew visibly excited, "So this means I have a good excuse to get drunk?! Awesome!!" Naruto moved to start jumping about when he felt the pain of the still existing hangover. "Owww, note to self, find an antidote to hangovers. I hate this pain."

Zabuza just laughed again, "Well brat if I'm going to help you learn this stuff then you're going to have to get used to it until you can find that antidote you were speaking of."

Naruto as well as the others were shocked at hearing this. Kakan spoke up "So you're going to train him as well Zabuza-dono?" At his nod Kakan smiled and stuck out a hand to Naruto, "Then this one shall introduce himself to his new comrade. Himura Kakan, that is my name…today."(3)

Naruto smiled back and grasped hands with his new friend, "My name is Koujaku Naruto." he gestured to his wolf familiar who bowed as best as a wolf could. "And he's my animal familiar Shippou Ya."

Kakan stepped forward and put a hand on Shippou's head, "This one is honored meet a talking wolf."

Shippou nodded, **"As am I. But I'm not a talking wolf, I am or rather was a regular that had bonded to Naruto because of his, err…I'm not sure if it can be classified as a Kekkai Genkai or not."**

Zabuza suddenly got a knowing gleam in his eye and stated like he was speaking of the weather, "A certain summoning creature visits them and gives them a tattoo that works as a summoning contract. Right?"

Naruto and Shippou tensed and growled out, "How did you know that?!"

Zabuza waved his hand gesturing them to calm down, "Iza, iza don't get all huffy on me. I'm not gonna kill you or anything." He shrugged his shoulders "My sensei was a similar case except his was with tigers of all creatures."

The boy and wolf relaxed, when suddenly a slight cough alerted them to the other person with them at the moment. Heads turned to see a peeved Haku who had her arms crossed,

"You do realize you were leaving me out of this conversation right?"

Kakan leaned over and held up a hand to cover his mouth and whispered in Naruto's ear "Haku-dono's pretty scary, that she is."

"What was that!?"

A rock whistled over and hit Kakan in the head getting an "Oro!" of pain from him, he managed to stay upright but his jade eyes had been replaced by swirls, "W~wait no more rocks, that is!"

Haku just humped and spoke to the Zanbatou wielder "Anyway Zabuza-san my name is Koori Haku. Since you know what Naruto-kun can do I might as well tell you about my abilities as well. Due to what my mother was I can manipulate ice at will and to some extent the plant life as well."

Zabuza just 'hmm-ed' _'These three, if I can train them well enough. We can probably overthrow that asshole of a kage. At least I can train them and see where it'll go from there.'_ He nodded to himself but felt that there was more to his two new charges than what had been said. _'oh well. Anyway, where are we going to go for training? More importantly who's going to be good for what?'_ He was brought from his musings by Naruto.

"Err…Zabuza-sensei the reason I'm out here in the first place is because I'm searching for the cave that holds the remains of my mother family line. From what I know it's not too far away from here. It's possible that we might be able to stay there for a while since she said it was also used as a way station."

Zabuza thought about this and couldn't really come up with any negatives for this course of action. Nodding he consented, "Very well then. At sunset we'll set out. for this cave. Until then we should rest since this has been a rather draining day. Plus I still need to plan my tort- I mean training."

The three shinobi-to-be gulped frightened of what this man might call training.

-Later that day, Dusk-

The small group had packed up and started to move out in the direction indicated by Naruto. During the walk Naruto had gotten irritated by the bangs constantly fall in front of his face, so he ripped a long bit of orange cloth from his jacket sleeve and tied it around his forehead with long strands two long strands trailing down his back. Getting questioning looks about why he ripped his jacket he answered with a shrug, "It's the last of these jackets anyway. I've got other clothes in seals." He received nods of understanding.

As they were walking Zabuza was thinking of which taijustu styles he knew the basics of that his charges could learn since he wanted each to at least know two styles each. So far he knew for certain which two Naruto would be learning, _Suiken_ (of course) and _Muay Thai_. The second because he seemed to have the most stamina of the three and he hadn't been trained to use it yet! He knew that with the proper exercises that already hardy stamina could transform to titan proportions. Now on to the girl. Haku seemed like she liked precision, if her packing had been anything to go by, she was a neat freak! Now this would be tough for Zabuza since he only knew the basics for six styles while knowing up to the intermediate stances of the Suiken thus leaving him with seven. So, what to choose, well…maybe _Aikido_ since she wouldn't have the physical strength of the two boys. Okay one down, hmm…precision. _Dim Mak_ it is. Now for Kakan. Well, with the scroll of that sword style his father left for him he'll definitely need speed and speed means leg muscles so _Capoeria_ would work well, then _Pa Kua_ since he'll need to be evasive. All right that's done now for-

Whatever thought might have come next was stopped as they were suddenly surrounded by dark figures. The four travelers plus animal quickly formed a small circle facing outward; Kakan with his Jo staff help in front of him, Naruto with twin kunai in reverse grips, Zabuza as well had drawn kunai since Kubikiri Houcho(4) was too big to use in this close quarters, Haku was at a loss until she remembered her bloodline. Concentrating a curved branch fell from below, using her ice she created a thin wire which she quickly stuck to the ends of the curved branch and then made an arrow of ice which she quickly knocked the ice arrow clumsily and held it pointed in front of her.

The 30 bandits surrounding them just laughed at the scene in front of them. One stepped forward holding a large war axe over his shoulder and spoke haughtily "Well, well, well. Lookie here boys. We got us a wannabe swordsman and three brats. Hehehe, I don't think you might have anything of value so we'll just be killing you. We might keep the girl though." Turning around he shouted out to his men "What do you think boys? Couple years she might be a looker."

"_Never you scum!!_"

Turning back he noticed the brown-haired boy in front of him having discarded his two kunai. The laugh that had started to build in his throat died however when he saw the boy seemed to be changing. The jacket was ripping and he saw that fur was starting to appear on his back, and that his features were changing. The others had noticed and had back away a bit from him, all were wondering (except Haku who also hadn't moved) what was going on and if this was some sort of jutsu. Suddenly the boy just simply vanished (a/n: like in first chapter) causing him to look wildly around for where the boy had gone to. A scream of pain erupted to his right but, by the time everyone had faced that way another shout came from the left. Using the distraction to his advantage Zabuza and Shippou leapt into the fray, cutting and biting up bandits left and right. Of course the bandits were now in panic, screaming in terror about demons.

Noroi Heihi (5).

Now during all of this Haku and Kakan had moved to stand with their backs together so as to protect each other and to stay out of the way. Occasionally Haku would let loose an arrow that would fell a bandit while Kakan simply bashed those who came to close in their lower heads…painful. The numbers whittled down faster when there was enough room for Zabuza to start swinging his zanbatou around. Finally with three members of the group covered in blood and only the bandit leader remaining Naruto, still in Lycan form, advanced slowly on his rooted form. The bandit seeing that doom was approaching started to babble out warnings and swung his axe wildly. Naruto just kept walking and when he got close enough simply tore the axe from the mans grip and then swinging around in a wide circle beheaded the man who had threatened one of his friends drawing for another fountain of blood which covered him in it's liquid. Naruto dropped the axe and turned around changing back to his human form as well. Spotting Haku and Kakan he gave them a smile and thumbs up while saying "No one messes with my friends." gaining smiles from both of them and Kakan returned the thumbs up. Suddenly his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed forward getting shouts from those present. Moving over to his side they rolled him over and saw that he was asleep.

Zabuza stoop up with a sigh and looked down the road, "Well if we go in our current direction we'll come up on an inn in about 10 or so minutes. Let's go gakis." He hefted up Naruto and put him on Shippou's back. He looked over at Haku who was the only one who hadn't been surprised by the transformation of the currently sleeping brunette, "It would seem that you forgot to explain something."

She nodded to him and looked up with a peeved expression, "I did tell you though that he would tell what he would. I can't tell you what he didn't want known."

Zabuza sighed, but accepted that for now. "Whatever, he's going to have to explain this anyway." He looked over at the girl and continued, "And I got a feeling that this isn't all there is to him, right Haku?" Said girl said nothing but continued walking. Kakan just simply walked off to the side reading a small book he always carried with him.

Silence overcame the group as they simply walked on, each just wanting a shower and a bed to sleep in. After 10 minutes they arrived at the inn Zabuza had mentioned. Renting two rooms, Zabuza lay Naruto down in one of the three beds of what would be the children's room for the night. He then went to another one and took it for himself.

-The Next Day, Noon-

Naruto woke up from his slumber to the sight of everyone gathered in the room. As he woke up he saw the curious looks he was receiving from Zabuza and Kakan. Scratching the back of his head he realized he would have to let loose the rest of his secrets in order to gain trust from Zabuza and Kakan. Sighing he gathered himself –insert story he told Haku at the beginning of the chapter. It's too long to type again.-

Kakan and Zabuza were shock by what they were just told. It's not everyday you meet someone who's a hybrid of Lycan and vampire, had their parents killed just because they didn't want to give you up, and had their freaking great-grandmother sealed inside of them! Naruto however wasn't looking at them but out the window so that he wouldn't have to see their faces when left. His head turned however at Kakan's voice.

"Since you have told us of your past, this one will tell his." Steeling himself he prepared to tell his past, something he had only told once. "My parents died when I was four, I ran from the orphanage carrying only this staff, the last gift of my Kaa-san. When I was five I went through the unfortunate experience of being a part of a slave trade caravan. I was only there for three days before bandits attacked. This one survived only because a man came and defeated all the bandits. He watched over me for two years, he" Kakan paused at the happy memory; "He trained me in the starting stances of his kenjutsu style and let me have the same last name as him. Unfortunately he had to travel to a place where he said that this one couldn't go to. I'm grateful that he left me a scroll on the rest of the style's attacks and stances. This one has a wish… and that is to someday find this one's shishou in order to spar with him and find out if this one can be named a master of the style." He smiled as he wiped tears from his eyes, "The man's name was Himura Kenshin, and the style he left me is the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. A style that uses god-like speed in order to quickly overcome one's foes." A look of astonishment appeared on both Naruto's (he heard of the style from his mother) and Zabuza's faces. He then brought a hand sheepishly behind his head with a sheepish smile adorning his face, "Of course, this one will need a sword, that is."

Face-faults went around at that statement. After Zabuza recovered he nodded his head, "Of course you'll need a sword! Wouldn't be Ken-jutsu without it." he said putting emphasis on Ken, "Only question is where we're going to get you a sword."

Kakan interrupted his sensei. "Ehrm sensei, if possible I would like to have my sword personally forged like shishou's was, and I'd prefer it if someone I trusted forged the sword."

Naruto cleared his throat, "Well, because of Kaa-sans instruction seal I can learn to forge weapons, so with some time I can forge you one."

Kakan smiled and nodded his head, "This one would greatly appreciate that." Their attention was drawn by sudden sniffles coming over from Haku. She had tears in her eyes and was dabbing a tissue at the scene of companionship before her.

Suddenly she launched herself at them and grabbed them both around their necks banging their heads together getting and 'Itai' from Naruto and an 'Ororo' from Kakan, replacing their eyes with swirls temporarily. Currently she was bawling her eyes out muttering how she wouldn't be left in the dust and she would be with them all the way. The boys were confusedly patting her on the back throwing questioning looks at each other while Zabuza just watched the little happy union of his charges.

Suddenly he stood up and spoke up, "Enough of that now. If we don't want to waste anymore time we better get out on the road and to this cave of yours Naruto." Nodding the three broke apart and started getting packed up. Within thirty minutes they had set out down the road.

After a while Naruto suddenly stopped with his eyes glassing over. The others tried slapping him and snapping fingers but he didn't respond. Shortly though he came back into focus, and in answer to the questioning looks said, "Kaa-san just stopped me to say that we need to head east until we come to the bottom of a waterfall. Then we have to climb to the top of it in order to reach the entrance."

Once they were sure which direction was east they set off.

-An hours walk later-

The band of travelers plus one wolf, stared at the rising waterfall before them. Looking up at it they could see what looked like a serpentine path that led, zigzagging, up one side of the waterfall. Deciding that would be their best bet they proceeded to carefully ascend the winding path.

Reaching the top they started searching for any clue that might lead to a cave. Their search wasn't going to well. A discovery came when Haku stumbled and tripped looking down at her feet she saw a symbol. It looked like two mountains on opposite sides of a moon and it didn't seem to have been made naturally. She called out to Naruto to come see what she had found.

He came over and zoned out for a bit, no doubt asking confirmation. Coming back he smiled and shouted out, "Over here! Haku-chan found it!" The others came over and inspected the symbol. Then looking over at Naruto they saw him focusing intently on the spot, not moving. He all of a sudden nodded his head and looked over at Zabuza, "Hey Zabuza-sensei? Do you think you can stab your Zanbatou through the symbol so that both edges of the blade are touching the opposite points of the mountains?" He pointed to indicate where it should go, after the adult stabbed the sword in he continued with the instructions, "Now turn it to the left," Zabuza gave off a grunt as he turned. In the process the others noticed that a mound of earth was rising up in the river. When Zabuza couldn't turn it anymore he pulled his sword out of the ground and to everyone's astonishment there was no visible sign that the symbol had been run through with a large sword. Turning to the mound they, even the children since the water was shallow, walked over to it. Naruto stepped up and pushed forward on where the symbol was. He pulled his hand back as the wall in front of him rose up revealing a stairway lined with wall torches that sprang to life. Looking behind him he gestured the others to follow him down into the cave, the mound lowering after Zabuza came in last.

-End of Chapter Two-

(1)- Kakan means bold.

(2)- Think Sagara Sanosuke from Rurouni Kenshin w/out a headband.

(3)- I know, I know, I totally stole Kenshin's introduction.

(4)- For those who don't know it's the name of his Zanbatou.

(5)- translate into Stupid bandits.

A/N: Well there you go. They've gotten their sensei and a new companion, an Oc of a friend of mines creation. Next Chapter will be the start of their tort- err, training. Yosh!

Like it? hate it? think it's a piece of crap?

Press the blue review button and tell me what you think.


	3. The cave found, Styles chosen

_**Chapter 3**_

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other ideas, lines, weapons, clothes, and/or names from other books, manga, fan fictions, and/or movies.

Unknown-nin345: Hello faithful readers to my third chapter of this fine story. I would like to thank those who have put me on their faves, and their alert lists, it means a lot to a new writer like me.

NOTICE: Hey, just so you know, I have a poll set up on my account for Kakan's pairing. So check it out to see who he should get!

Clacking.

That was the only sound that could be heard in the descending tunnel, aside from the flickering and cracking of the flames. Casting an ominous mood in the air.

Yet, still they continued. Down the winding stairs they went. They were all wondering how far down it went; when Naruto felt the stairs become a hallway. He stopped halting the others behind him and peered down the stretch before him. As he did he could vaguely see the end of the hall.

He gestured the others to follow him and he moved forward towards the end of the hall. Coming to it they saw…a dead end. Naruto and the others could only stare shocked and moved up to run his hand of the wall. As he did he felt what seemed to be lines, curiosity lit up in him and he placed both hands on the wall earning him different looks on everyone's faces. Following one of the lines he found that it was joined by other lines which seemed to form what seemed to be a Kanji.

The others simply watched as the brunette move his hands in a seemingly random patter on the wall before them. They watched as he stopped suddenly and moved over to grab a torch, Haku started to ask, "Uhm, Naruto-kun, what are you doing?"

Looking over he smiled and answered "There's something written on that door, but I can't see it properly. So I'm getting a torch to help with that." He moved back to the wall with Kakan moving up with him. Together they looked at the wall, and although there was a torch right up at the wall with them, they still couldn't see any Kanji but when they ran hands over it they could feel them.

But suddenly as Kakan had traced over a particular placement of Kanji he clutched his head in pain and his vision swam before him. He dropped to his knees, temporarily deaf to the world, eyes staring straight ahead at nothing. He felt random flashes of knowledge pop into his head and disappear at high speeds until it finally came to stop and the wall he had just been feeling around on appeared before him. Gasping he rested and finally realized that the others had come up and kneeled beside him. Looking around at them brought for gasps that quickly wiped the comforting smile he had looked up with from his face and brought a question from him.

"What?"

Haku formed an ice mirror in front of him and it took him a while to realize that his eyes had changed. The part of his eyes that had been white turned to black, the jade of his irises had remained but there was no longer a round, black pupil. Instead there was a black square with a black crosshair running through it as well as a crosshair that was diagonal. He stared at them and watched as the square turned round again and both of the crosshairs receded into his pupils. He smiled viciously "Wow, guess all three of us can lay claim to a bloodline now huh?" They smiled viciously back at him and all three started to laugh, while Zabuza just stared at the three of them in shock that he would be able to train three people with Kekkai Genkai.

After the trios little laugh Kakan remembered what he had briefly seen. He turned towards Naruto and said, "I don't know how but I know why we can't see any of the Kanji on this door." he stood up Naruto and Haku standing with him and looked at the door, "The Kanji are made in a metal that only reacts when chakra is pumped through them, but in this case I think it will only work with yours Naruto." He turned to face Naruto, "I think this is the only way to get into this cave. We're just going to have to try it."

Nodding grimly Naruto stepped up to the wall and channeled his chakra into his hands, a gray-ish, wispy glow coming from them. Kakan pointed at where he should put his hands and when he did, his chakra spread throughout the 'veins' in the rock and lit up the Kanji with a gray light. They read it and saw it was "A riddle?" spoke Haku confused, she then read the riddle "She's been around for millions of years, but no more than a month old. Leaving light where she travels. Who is she?" turning to the others she gave a questioning look which they didn't notice as they were still reading the riddle themselves, going through possibilities for the answer when suddenly a voice spoke up.

"_**The Moon."**_

Everyone turned to look at Shippou as he explained, _**"It's an old wolf story that's been told. It says that every month the moon goddess is reborn. She ages every month and on the night of the new moon she comes down to walk the earth and then she goes back to her domain in the sky, always providing light where she travels**_**. (1**_**) It's apparent they got this riddle from that story."**_ He finished and motioned his head to the wall, _**"It looks like there is another one."**_ Everybody looked up to see that the Kanji for Tsuki (moon) had appeared and that the line of Kanji had rearranged itself, Shippou read it this time,

"_**This thing all things devours:  
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;  
Gnaws iron, bites steel;  
Grinds hard stones to meal;  
Slays king, ruins town,  
And beats high mountain down." **_

Everybody looked at each other as they thought about it. Naruto got tired of standing and sat down, taking his hands off the seal but noticed that there was still chakra flowing thru it, everyone following his lead. Shippou walked over and lay down next to Naruto who started running his hands thru his fur. Sighing he looked up at the ceiling, "I wonder what time it is?" As surprise came to him as the wall/door that had contained the Kanji suddenly became intangible and he fell backwards thru it with a shout.

Everybody was up again as soon as they heard the shout and cautiously approached the wall poking it curiously, sending jiggly ripples throughout it. Kakan suddenly spoke up, "This one is reminded of Jell-O, that he is." the others nodding at his assessment. Naruto's upper-body suddenly melded thru the 'rock' waving his arm towards him he said, "Hey, it's air-conditioned in here, you should come on in!" grabbing Haku's hand he pulled her thru the wall leaving Zabuza, Kakan, and Shippou who looked at each other, shrugged and walked thru.

-The other side of the 'door'-

Coming thru to the other side they stopped in awe, breathless. For it truly was an incredible sight.

They were standing in a huge room that giants could have stood in comfortably and a mile wide with Celtic style paint lining the walls. Halls led out of the hall into different parts of this way station, although 'waystation' could hardly do this place justice. If anything this seemed more like an underground fort, hell there was even two miniature waterfalls with small rivers flowing through the room meeting together to form a small pool in the center with a line of water out of a hole in the wall. They guessed it may lead out to the river below the waterfall. Finally throughout the room there were long dinging tables that could have seated 40 people each as well as two giant curved pits that had large fires roaring inside them. Finally there was a giant clock placed at the end of the hall across from where they entered. All in all, it looked relatively undamaged or unworn, despite there being no one in the huge place.

Coming back to themselves they could see Naruto, followed by Shippou, dragging poor, little Haku over to the closest room that from what they could see seemed to have scrolls in it. They saw them go into the room followed by Naruto's loud shout, "Holy crap!! This is a lot of scrolls!!" he popped his out and shouted to them, "OI! Get over here and take a look at all these scrolls in this room, there are hundreds!!" he pulled his head back in and rushed back down the hallway.

Looking at each other they decided to go see these scrolls, maybe they had some interesting stuff in them.

-Over in the scroll room-

With Naruto and Haku we see them moving among to shelves which had labels over each section such as: 'Kenjutsu', 'Ninjutsu-(element)', 'Forging', 'Taijutsu', etc. There were even a couple scrolls for the Ice and Wood elements! Even obscure branches like Kinjutsu and even a list of Summoning Contracts, though, admittedly, there weren't a lot of those and in the back were books of a variety of stories and legends, even Jiraiya's Icha Icha saga.

Haku was currently reading over a scroll for using bows and Naruto? He was over reading in the forging section, reading up in order to fulfill his promise to Kakan, he would forge his friend a sakabatou. Both looked up when they saw Zabuza and Kakan enter. Those two stopped in shock however and stared with dropped jaws and wide eyes.

Zabuza decided to make his opinion known, "Damn, you weren't kidding when you said there were hundreds in here!" he looked around and walked over to the Taijutsu section and searched for the six scrolls of the different styles he needed.

Kakan had gone to the elemental Ninjutsu section and saw a stack of white cards on a lower shelf. Picking one up he was about to ask what it was when he grasped his head again as bits of knowledge flew through his head, when it stopped on the card he suddenly knew what it was. His only question was: '_W__hat are all these flashes of knowledge_? _It can't be my bloodline, so what? Maybe someday I'll get an answer.'_ Shaking his head clear of those thoughts he looked back at the white card he was holding and, using his knew-found knowledge, transferred a small amount of chakra to the card. He watched as half of the card crumpled, while the other half turned to dust.

Zabuza, who had just looked over Kakan's shoulder, nodded his head and commented to the confused boy, "That means your two primary elemental techniques you can learn the best from are Doton Jutsus and Raiton Jutsus." He looked up at the wide shelf, "At least we won't have to worry about finding you techniques to use." Kakan nodded his head as well and moved over to the Doton Jutsus first, while Zabuza snuck into the back over where Jiraiya's books were, _'A-amazing! they have every single book he's ever written!'_ He started crying rivers of tears, _'This is paradise!'_

Ignorant of his sensei's happiness, Naruto placed his scroll back on the shelf and said to the others he was going to head to the next door receiving murmurs of acknowledgement from them. Shippou got up and followed Naruto as they moved to the next door, which led into a hallway that had randomly placed doorways. Looking in one he saw that it was a regular bedroom with a bathroom attached to it, he could better look at it later. He went back out into the main hall and shouted to them that he had found the bedrooms, the others put up their scrolls and came to him, he gestured to the hall and said, "This is where the bedrooms are located, I don't know what's in all of them so you can just choose one of them. However, I have the first one on the right." Nodding the two young ones quickly sped down the hall while Zabuza took his time.

Naruto and Shippou went into the next doorway, went down a small hallway, and came into a huge training dojo. There were weightlifting machines, treadmills, even a miniature running track, and all sorts of other exercise equipment. All in all it was very well stocked for muscle building.

Coming out of the room they went into the last room on that side which Zabuza was also inspecting. Entering the room together they found it was where the weapons where forged and although they weren't being used they could smell the distinct aroma that is usually associated with forges when they're being used. Zabuza smiled down at Naruto "Looks like you get to fulfill your promise eh, ebi (shrimp)?" Naruto just nodded; glad he would be able to come through with what he said. A shout came from behind them, on the other side of the main hall.

They turned around to see Kakan staring dumbfounded into one of the doorways. Shrugging two made their way to Kakan while Shippou made his way to the kitchen to see if he could find some food and stopped dead as well. Inside were racks of hundreds upon hundreds of all sorts of weapons. They ranged from katana's to broadswords, spears to staffs, bows to crossbows, and everything in between, including hidden blades that go into canes or pens, and even a very rare bottle of _'anti-pervert spray'_(shudder…they all decided to hide that from Haku). They were all quite literally salivating at the sight of all the weapons.

Then Haku came walking up confused as to why they were just standing there drooling with their mouths hanging open. She put her hand to her mouth to cover a giggle before making her way in to find a good bow. She walked over to the part of the rack that held different bows, looking at them she could see bows she recognized from books. There were short, long, half, recurved, composite, plus a few others all lined up and strung. She took down a short bow, since that what the biggest she could carry at the moment and tested the string by drawing it back. She was very surprised when it showed no strain or signs of breaking; seeking to test it further she released and listened to the twang of it. She nodded her head, it carried a good sound. Looking over the rack she spotted holsters for the bows, picking one up she attached it to her back.

Meanwhile back with the guys….

They had finally decided to pick up their dislocated jaws and come into the weapons room. Zabuza and Naruto went over to the zanbatou area, while Kakan moved past Haku to go look at the staffs. Looking at them he saw ones of different sizes and different woods/metals. He grabbed a 5-foot bo-staff that had green wrappings in the middle where one would place their hands. He placed both his hands there and twisted them, testing the grip of the wrappings. He was surprised when it showed it had a good grip. He decided to take this one and switched his old 4-foot staff with the longer one. Nodding to himself, he joined Haku as they left the other two drooling over the sharp stuff.

Now only Zabuza and Naruto were left in the weapon's room and both were drooling at the sight of the many sharp and shiny swords (yep, they both love weapons). Naruto was torn however; there were soooo many weapons to choose from! He became depressed and his shoulders slumped in sadness. Zabuza noticed this and nodded to himself, he had now decided which brat would specialize in which field of shinobi fighting. Deciding that he didn't want to see the brat depressed he grabbed Naruto by the back of his collar and swung him up so that he was dangling on Zabuza's back and despite he flailing carried Naruto out of the room. He went across the hall into a hallway that descended spiral-like and dropped Naruto.

Looking around them they could see that the room was designed for sparring. There were several mats placed in different areas on the floor. One had a strange symbol on it that Zabuza went to investigate, upon coming closer he saw it was a gravity seal, that when chakra was applied to it, would make the area within the mat harder to move through. Looking up he noticed two things. One, on a side of the room was human-like wooden puppets that he supposed, when activated, would provide fighting simulations with their opponent. Two, the brat he had carried in here had left after quickly growing bored. Oh, he was going to suffer from training.

-With Naruto-

He suddenly felt a chill go down his spine; he all of a sudden had a feeling he was going to suffer for some reason. He shrugged it off, _'Eh, probably just that fish I ate this morning.'_ Shaking his head to dispel that thought he brought himself back to where he currently was. He marveled at the ingenuity his ancestors possessed, for the room he was currently standing in with Haku and Kakan was an elemental Ninjutsu paradise. Everywhere they looked were ideal places to use all sorts of elemental Ninjutsu, there was a barren plain for doton, a large lake for suiton, a forest for mokuton, icebergs to use hyoton techniques on, as well as others for every kind of element including the obscure ones or ones that required multiple elements to be fused together. Zabuza came in behind them on the cliff that over looked this area and mused to himself, _'hmm, these people must have been extremely advanced with using Fuuinjutsu. It's obvious that there is some kind of jutsu being used to provide this kind of mixed terrain.'_ He looked down at the awestruck children and chuckled, "Enjoy yourselves today gakis, because tomorrow your tort... (horrified looks) err, training begins. chuckling to himself at their nervous expressions he went back to the scroll/library room to catch up on a certain adult-rated book.

Meanwhile the kids had left the elemental room as well and headed over to the kitchen to see if there was anything stocked. Coming in they saw Shippou was gorging himself on a steak that he had pulled out of the fridge. The wolf looked up as they came, his cheeks puffed a little and he let loose a loud burp. The kids stared before they busted out laughing while Shippou just looked down with the fur on his cheeks gaining a red tint signifying that he was blushing. Calming down they spread out and went to look in the different cabinets.

Naruto had just pulled open one of them only to find there was nothing in it. Closing the door he turned away but stopped, for some reason he felt he should open that door back up. Doing so he found to his extreme excitement that the cupboard was stocked "RAMEN!! Oh my god, they got beef, chicken, shrimp, special nindo ramen, breakfast ramen. Man this is awesome!" Ecstatic he grabbed a whole shelf's worth of ramen cups and shut the door. As he walked over to the stove to start the heat up of his noodles, Kakan came up and opened the cupboard next. He was surprised that there was no ramen in there but, having seen what happened with his friend he closed the door and waited a second. When he opened the door it was filled with packets that contained different curry sauces and bags of rice. Grabbing two of the curry packets and a bag of rice he shut the cupboard door and moved to another stove that was setup in the kitchen. Finally Haku who had been looking in the fridge came up to the cupboard door and repeated the process to gain the food. However, when she opened the door she was startled when cool air came out. Looking in she squealed, for inside was hundreds of bentos of sushi. She quickly grabbed two bentos and moved to sit at one of the tables to eat her lunch and watch the other two make theirs.

-With Zabuza-

Our favorite silent killer can be seen reading the Icha Icha: Swords girl edition (cue perverted chuckle along with complementary nosebleed). "Oh this book is awesome, Jiraiya-sama is the best." he turned the page and came to the centerfold picture of the main female character; he gave off another perverted giggle.

The rest of the day passed with the kids lounging around and Zabuza reading through some of the Icha Icha novels in the library. The kids of course didn't go to bother him, being severely creeped out by the strange giggles. When night came they all settled into their rooms resting up for the next day, the day their training would begin.

-THE NEXT DAY-

Into each of the sleeping children's rooms a two shadowed figures slowly crept up to each of the beds. Once the two figures in each room had reached their targets one of each pair formed the half hand-seal for usagi and leaned over the sleeping children. With a quick burst of chakra three of the six figures broke down into water which soaked the children waking them up shouting and shivering. Glaring up at Zabuza's water clones was all they could do at the moment. The clones however held up their hands and said, "Hey, don't glare at us! We we're just following orders, besides boss wants you to get dressed and head down to the sparring room." With that the rest of the clones dispelled themselves further drenching the already drenched kids. Grumbling about mean senseis the kids went over to their closets which were automatically filled with clothes that fit to their tastes.

For Naruto: a green jacket, the sleeves he tore off, with his Kaa-san's clan symbol on the back with brown wrappings to go around his stomach and black baggy shinobi pants that had tape on the bottom to go around his ankles, finishing off his ensemble were black tabis.

For Kakan: he chose a mesh shirt first, covered by a blue karate gi, for leg wear he put on karate pants to go with the gi and slipped on ninja sandals for his feet, finally he tied of his smoky-white, short hair into it's customary ponytail.

For Haku: she looked around a bit in her closet before finally choosing a loose tan hakama and purple tank top with a sea-blue kimono to go over both (manga style clothes but diff. colors).

Now dressed they met each other in the hall and walked to the sparring room, each noticed that it 6:00 in the morning and their anger increased. Coming down into the chamber they saw their new sensei with six scrolls stacked next to him standing with his arms crossed. He gestured them to come sit down in front of him, which they did. Once they were in front of him he started speaking, "Alright now I'm going to be teaching you but, I've only got a year before I have to report back to Kirigakure and the asshole Mizukage, now by that time I'm hoping to have you master at least the beginning stances of each of the two fighting styles I've chosen for you and also to have gotten you started on your Shinobi arts specialization. Naruto, (he pays closer attention) you're going to be a short to long range fighter as our Tai-jutsu and Heiki Meishu (determined nod). Kakan, you will be the short to medium range fighter and focus on Ninjutsu and Fuuinjutsu in conjunction with whatever weapon you use (firm nod). Finally Haku, your going to fight at medium to long range with your bow obviously and specialize in Genjutsu and be our field medic which will require you to research Eisei-jutsu(resolved nod)." he smiled proudly at their determination to learn. He nodded satisfied, "All right" he bent down and put two scrolls in front of each of them, "Those scrolls contain the two fighting styles that I think are suited for each of you. Right now I want you to read over the scrolls and see what each style is about so that you know what you're going to have to train your body in. Okay? (nods all around) Good, get to it." He left them to their reading and picked up his zanbatou before moving to one of the mats and activated the gravity seal. When that was done he started swinging his large kitchen knife-like sword in basic directions with some amount of difficulty due to the enhanced gravity.

Meanwhile Naruto had started to read his Muay Thai scroll and was very interested in what it said, Kakan had picked up the scroll for Capoeira and the more he read the more he wanted to get started on it, and Haku had picked up her Aikido scroll while thinking this would be of great benefit to her since she wouldn't be able to gain that much physical strength. So, this continued (with many breaks and stretches) until Lunch time where everyone stopped and went to eat. When they finished their lunch they went to the scroll/library room to continue reading since there was soft chairs in there.

Three hours later Zabuza brought them back into the sparring room and asked which of the scrolls they had picked.

Naruto went first, "Well, the scroll I picked was on the Muay Thai style of fighting."

Then Kakan, "I had picked up the Capoeria style."

Finally Haku, "And I looked over the scroll that dealt with Aikido."

Zabuza nodded, "Alright then we're going to spend our first two months of training to get your bodies started on gaining the physical conditioning to use those styles, and then we'll set forth on getting used to the basic stances. Then we'll spend the a month and a half getting started on the basics of those styles you've just read about. Next we'll spend three months on the physical stuff for your second style while still maintaining your training in the first. After all it wouldn't be good for you all to get rusty would it?" the kids nodded their heads numbly, they were going to be doing all that!? But then another thought came, there was still 5 & 1/2 months left! Zabuza chuckled at their shocked expressions. "Now the last five and a half months we're going to be focusing on weapons training as well as the jutsus'. Any questions?"

Naruto spoke up, "Err sensei, am I going to be doing my forge work in my spare time?"

His answer was, "Yes, and don't worry I will give you ample spare time. Anything else?"

Haku decided she would speak up, "Zabu-sensei? (eyebrow twitches) What's going to happen to us when you have to go back to Kiri?" she asked afraid that he would abandon them.

Zabuza just smiled, "I'm going to set you up in the Kirigakure shinobi academy there since when we get back I won't be able to train you all full time. So don't worry, just focus on your training for now. Now, I'll allow one more question before we begin."

Kakan took his turn, "Zabuza-sensei, what's Kirigakure's academy like?"

Zabuza nodded, sat down cross-legged and started to explain what the academy back in Kiri was like, "Well, you can start the academy as young as eight. You go through the first year learning three basic jutsu that don't use a lot of chakra thus making it easier for students as well as building up reserves. Also during the first year there are two chakra exercises that are taught that don't use a lot of chakra as well but can help your control. Now at the end of the first year you and your classmates go through a placement exam. What this does is allow the instructors to see which area you are most suited for and lets them place you into a learning structure for that area such as our version of Anbu that I never learned the name of, hunter-nin's, a front-line combat ninja, or even the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananinshuu if you showed enough promise with a sword. So then you go through the next three years of learning how to perform in the area you were assigned in and then after you are through you go thru some sort of event where they test your abilities. I'm not sure what they are for each of them since I didn't event attend the academy. No," he said seeing their shocked looks, "It was at the graduation event for the combat section of the students, where they were all involved in a mass battle royal where the goal was to incapacitate everyone you could. Now, I had not known that this thing was only for the students so as soon as the fight started I jumped in and defeated all of them and since I only used my hands and feet to do it they automatically gave me the rank of genin and some jokingly referred to it as me 'mauling' them all and staining myself with blood," here he snorted, "While that didn't happen I found it was a good tactic to either intimidate my foes or goad them to attack me so I didn't change it.(he shrugged) Why throw away an advantage in battle? So that's what the Shinobi Academy in Kirigakure is like." He then abruptly stood up and his voice deepened and his face gained a spooky quality that looked like a flashlight was being shined right beneath it "Now it's time to start your training." he mentally laughed at the frightened looks on their faces _'Oh yeah priceless. I'm really glad I spied on that Konoha Anbu that one day.'_

_-_Over in Konoha-

An bear-masked Anbu was currently sparring with one of his female subordinates sneezed with great force that made him lose his balance. As he was flailing he felt his hand hit something squishy (we all know what'll happen next) and he suddenly was blasted with unrestrained killer intent that seemed god-like in proportion. Looking down at his hand he discovered that it was latched on to his cat-masked subordinate's rather firm breast. He, of course didn't get much thinking time as he was socked right in the face and was flung thru several of the nearby trees. Nodding to herself the female Anbu left her taichou to his well-deserved pain and went to go look for her sword-wielding boyfriend.

The bear-masked Anbu however didn't know if he should thank the person who made him sneeze or kill them since his subordinate had just broken his favorite mask.

End of Chapter 3

A/N: Well alright the training begins. Next chapter will cover the year of training. So what do you think, now all three of them have a Kekkai Genkai at their disposal.

Now I've got a couple polls I'd like some feedback to, so as my faithful readers I would like to hear your choices to the following:

Poll 1: What should Naruto's Elemental Affinity be(type in whatever you want, but he'll only be limited to one)?

Poll 2: Who should Naruto's pairing(s) be? Haku is already in. Two choices. Poll will be open until after the Chunin Exams.

A-Oc

B-Tenten

C-Temari

D-Yugito

E-Hana Inuzuka

-Number explanation-

1- Watch out for this, may show up again later.

2- For the words you didn't understand: Heiki-Weapon, Meishu-Expert, and Eisei-medical.

Click on the blue button, you know you want to.

\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/


	4. The year's gone, off to Kiri!

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Unknown-nin345: Hello again faithful readers to the fourth chapter of The Life's Adventure of Koujaku Naruto. Before we begin I'd like to broadcast the poll results so far:

Poll 1: What should Naruto's Elemental Affinity be? (Type in whatever you want, but he'll only be limited to one)

-We have 2 votes for wind and 1 vote for water. Now since Naruto won't really use ninjutsu a lot this poll will be kept open until Chapter 6.

Poll 2: Who should Naruto's pairing(s) be? Haku is already in. Two choices. Poll will be open until the beginning of the Chunin Exams.

-So far the votes are:

A-Oc-1

B-Tenten-1

C-Temari-0

D-Yugito-5

E-Hana Inuzuka-6

Poll 3: Who should my OC-Kakan be paired up with? Please choose only TWO women. (on my account.)

Votes so far are:

A) Oc (Extremely Shameless) -2

B) Shizune (will be 20) -1

C) Kurenai (same as Anko) -1

D) Anko (don't worry she'll be younger than canon)-3

E) Other (P.M. me as to who) -0

Be sure to visit my account to choose which lovely ladies Kakan will be paired with.

Now to answer a couple of questions in a review from a reader, I'll list the person's review so that you all can see what I'll be explaining.

-good chapter but what happen to Kakan did he get a bloodline if so why? and what is it? i mean if it was in naruto's family's place and the stuff there was for him then why give kakan something that naruto's mom left for him?-

Unknown-nin345 - In order of your questions: Yes he did get a bloodline limit, why? because it's a friend of mines Oc and he came with this bloodline limit. It's name will be given in this chapter but if you want to find out what I have planned for it's abilities go to (leave out spaces) and search for Uzukaze-taichou, it will be shown in my deviations gallery and if you want a more detailed description search for chaotic storm in the authors section of . The bloodline limit wasn't something that was left for Naruto, it was just something that activated at that time, and it was a completely random event that just happened to occur in the cave. Okay? hope that clears all this stuff up for you, and thanks for reading.

-2 months after the end of the last chapter-

The physical condition that they underwent in order to learn was hell. For Naruto and Kakan at least, all Haku had to do was do some light exercises twice a day and train in her eye-to-hand reaction time in order to properly judge when to move and counter.

On the first day of training Zabuza told Haku to summon up a large, thick tree stump with her abilities. When asked why he said it was going to be Naruto's punching bag, which made said brown-haired boy pale at the pain his limbs would be going thru. Zabuza told him that each morning he would hit the log with all parts of his arms and that at night he would switch to all parts of his legs…at full strength. When Naruto shouted/demanded to know why the hell he would have to do that Zabuza just smirked sadistically and replied that it would do two things: build up his pain resistance and harden his limbs for the high contact fighting of the Muay Thai style since it focuses more on the in between parts of the limbs rather than the ends.

Naruto stood up seeing that he wouldn't be getting out of this and started the painful procedure of hitting the log with all parts of his arm; biceps, forearms, elbows, etc., grunts sounded when he hit the chakra-made wood.

Zabuza then turned his attention to Kakan, who had started sweating bullets as his thoughts brought up painful training, and told him that they would be working on his acrobatics seeing as Capoeira was a very fast-paced, moving all over the place style of fighting. He then proceeded to explain the boy that in order to do this he would be wearing weights on his legs that would only be taken off when either in the shower or when sparring on the gravity mats. Also they would be working on his flexibility since he would be inverting himself a lot. Finally they'd be seeing what his Kekkai Genkai could do. So far over the two months all they had figured out was that, when activated, it would be able to track the person it locked onto no matter where they went. Kind of like a built in homing device that was tuned into chakra signatures. They had decided to name it Kaosu-Ryoushi-Me **(2).**

Haku got it the easiest. Since Zabuza decided to give her Taijutsu styles that didn't focus on strength she didn't have to do as much exercising as the boys, so Zabuza had her wearing basic weights that didn't bear heavily down on her, but would allow her muscles to build a bit. In combination she also worked on the hand-eye

coordination she would need when fighting with Aikido. And as stated earlier, Zabuza also had her doing exercises while wearing her weights.

Needless to say, they all relished any free time they got because of all the training.

Kakan(in his free time) had been reading up on the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu that he planned on using one day in order to have a reason to seek out Kenshin, or if he couldn't find Kenshin, then Kenshin's shishou: Hiko Seijiro in order to learn the final two techniques of the famed Kenjutsu style.

Naruto, of course, was reading scrolls on forging and had discovered an interesting legend. This legend stated that if a sword, no matter the type, was forged with enough heart would be inhabited by a warrior's spirit that would aid it's wielder in battle. Now, he wasn't sure what to make of this, he found it sort of hard to believe that a sword could gain a spirit but he was willing to put his heart into whatever weapon he made. His honor as a blacksmith would demand no less from him.

Haku meanwhile, was looking at scrolls that contained medical stuff. Medicines, creams, & jutsus in her free time as well as working on controlling her ice and wood elements(through pranks). In the process discovered that since ice was frozen water that she could manipulate water as well when she accidentally made the water in the osen connected to her room freezing cold, gaining an evil thought she waited until Zabuza went to take a shower. She then snuck into his room and crouched on the other side of the door, concentrating she made the water in their unbearably cold and hightailed it out of the room before he discovered it was her. She also spent a little bit of her time reading up on pressure points and acupuncture after she had glimpsed into her second taijutsu scroll, the style, it said, focused on being able to hit these points in order to disable the opponent.

-End summary of first two months-

Now, all three stood before Zabuza as they started on their first lesson of learning the fighting styles they had conditioned their bodies for. Zabuza briefly looked over them and nodding his head, started to speak, "Alright the last two months we spent on conditioning your bodies has paid off a little, but since you all are eight after all we'll continue with this even when we return to Kiri. I don't want you to slack off with this though, it wouldn't do for you to suddenly lose strength in your fighting." he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "Yosh, now that the warning speech is out of the way lets get started with the training." he formed a half-ram seal and a mizu bushin sprung up from a puddle of water near Zabuza. Mizu-Zabuza spoke up, "Alright, Kakan comes with me." Kakan nodded and followed the water clone over to one of the sparring mats to begin his training in Capoeira. The real Zabuza then used a jutsu that he had read up on the previous day, the tsuchi bushin and had Naruto go with it for his training in Muay Thai. Finally he had Haku go with him to begin her instruction in Aikido.

So went the instruction in the beginning stances of the first scrolls of the taijutsu fighting styles. During this month and a half the three shinobi-to-be still did their physical exercises; Naruto w/ his log bashing and extreme body hardening, Kakan w/ his leg weight and acrobatics, and Haku w/ her perception exercises and basic weight exercises. By the end they at least knew the positioning of the first stances and a couple of kata for each style. For Naruto this kata involved him mainly alternating between thrusting forth his elbows and kneecaps(remember this is only the basic kata). Kakan's beginning kata mainly had him involved in doing hand stands and other acrobatics i.e. flips, somersaults, cartwheels to get him used to the jumpy movement, of course since he wasn't an expert in the style yet he fell down on his ass…a lot. Finally Haku's kata focused on her redirecting an opponents strike.

During his spare time, after many nights of reading up on it, Naruto had finally decided to try his hand at forging when they started the taijutsu training. He started out with basic weapons, namely shuriken, throwing knives, kunai, and arrowheads. His first attempts came out as…less than satisfactory, Zabuza and his mother weren't helping by saying that they looked like complete shit. Nevertheless, he continued working on his forging skills till he was able to make a perfect kunai and throwing knife, sometimes even late into the night to get them done. Surprisingly the smaller stuff was harder to forge than the larger items, but he kept at it. Now a month and a half later he had made excellent items of the four mentioned earlier. Zabuza had deemed him ready to move on to larger blades after inspecting his forged weapons.

So here he was at the end of the month, preparing to forge his first katana. It really wasn't all that hard to make the shape of the blade since it was mainly a strait slab of metal, the hard part was folding and tempering the steel so that the blade wouldn't break on it's first strike. He worked for three hours straight on his first sword, cooling it in water, fitting it with a simple handle and guard. When he finished he held it up and gave a few test swings, he frowned as he noticed that it was a little off-balance, but he quickly pushed away the glooming thoughts since he knew the next time he would do better.

Zabuza, watching from the doorway, smiled at his deshi's determination to help his comrade and quietly left.

Kakan had, at the beginning of the taijutsu training started studying how to make seals which he found were both extremely interesting and hard to do at the same time. Nonetheless he studied on different types of seals and what they could do since he would be the fuuin meishu. Looking over the book of beginners seals before him he saw that the first was a storage seal, it made a temporary stasis field in which one could store practically anything. He grinned as he thought of the possibilities. But those would have to wait until later. Reaching over for the brush and ink he brought with him and began to copy the seal. It was meticulous work trying to make it exact, since the scroll said that if even one line was off balance than either the seal wouldn't work or.. well let's just say the second option was rather undesirable. Finally done he decided to test it out with a stuffed animal he had nearby, that way he wouldn't be hurt if it blew up in his face. Gritting his teeth and clenching his eyes shut he applied chakra to the seal. He opened his eyes when a poof was heard. Looking down he noticed that the rabbit was not there, which meant the seal worked! Now it was time to see if he could get it back out… 'poof' "Alright! my first successful Fuuin!" As Kakan celebrated both making his first seal, and not having to fear what Haku would do when she found her favorite stuffed rabbit was missing Zabuza, who was observing form the shadows nod his head proud that the boy had started his fuuin studies before they officially began.

Haku in her spare time was practicing both her archery and making medicinal creams despite the fact that they already had a bunch of them. Plus she also worked on mastering her ability to manipulate ice before wood since it seemed to come more natural to her than wood did. So far she had come up with an idea for a new hyoton jutsu but she was having trouble actually making it work. Basically the idea she came up with was to simply bring her enemy in close and surround the both of them with needles made of ice. Then she would draw in the needles to stab her opponent. The problem was that it took her a long time to dispel the needles behind her before they stabbed her in the back. It was very frustrating, especially since the needles weren't hard enough to pierce for some reason, they just burst back into water. On the plus side however her medical creams worked, even though she had to force those two stubborn bakas to use them. Dispelling that train of thought she went to do something that always seemed to calm her, shooting an arrow at a target, maybe this time it would be one of the boys, after all she did need to work on hitting moving targets. Zabuza, who had been lazing around, just chuckled to himself when he heard her say that.

When the month and a half of taijutsu instruction was over the three stood in front their shishou, ready for the next part of their training.

Zabuza started to speak, "Now we're going to get you all used to the movements of your other styles of taijutsu. For Naruto we'll be starting your training with the suiken style, first without the alcohol, and as the years go by I want you to use that kind of fighting. Only drink alcohol if your life or the lives of you comrades are in danger until you are able to control your drunken frenzy to a certain degree." Naruto nodded seeing how serious Zabuza was, "Kakan, you'll be working on the movements to an evasive style called Pa Kua. It will focus on twisting and spinning around your opponent in order to get in their guard to strike them." Kakan nodded hesitantly while mentally screaming _'NO! more spinning!' _"Haku those precision exercises where to also somewhat prepare you for your second style which is called Dim Mak. It deals with hitting pressure points along an imaginary line set up on a person's body, so now you'll be studying anatomy. Ok gakis?" Three nods met his explanation.

So they proceed for the next three months to get used to their second styles, which for Kakan and Naruto meant bruises galore. Naruto all over his body and Kakan along his legs since he tripped a lot. Haku still had it physically the easiest.

Naruto found that using suiken without any alcohol left him very, very dizzy since the alcohol acted as a buffer to his vertigo senses.

Kakan found he started to really hate Zabuza, the man fucking threw really pointy stuff to get him to dodge and since he kept tripping he often got hurt by cuts.

Finally, Haku discovered that constantly jabbing wood with only your fingers really gets annoying. Sometimes she got so annoyed that she just blasted the immobile stump with an ice spike resulting in her having to set up another practice dummy.

Now at the end of their taijutsu focus of their second styles Zabuza felt that each of them could at least take down low-level genins… as long as the genin didn't use ninjutsu. He wasn't worried about this since they still had 3 ½ years before they became ninjas and he was sure they would only get stronger in that time.

They had gathered in the elemental room on the cliff after lunch for the start of their elemental affinity ninjutsu training. The three ninja-to-be stood before their shishou as he stood with his arms crossed before addressing them.

"Alright gakis. We're here today to discover your elemental affinity or affinities." He pulled four slips of paper out before grabbing onto one of them. "Now this is a slip of paper that's made from a certain type of chakra-absorbing tree. What you're supposed to do is push a small amount of chakra into the cards to determine what your elemental affinity is." He did so and the card became thoroughly damp, "As you can see my card got wet, which means I have an affinity to water. If your affinity is towards earth the card turns to dust. If it crumples the affinity is lightning. If it splits in half then you got wind. Finally if it bursts into flames you obviously have fire." He gave each of them a card. "Now you try it. Kakan, I know you did this earlier but, in some people their affinities may change or they may gain a new one so I want you to try it again."

His three subordinates nodded and pushed their chakra into their cards and awaited the results.

For Kakan his card came up as the same as when he did it six months ago, half of it turned to dust and the other half crumpled.

Haku's was strange. A third got soaked signifying water, then another third seemed to grow bark which might be her ability to use the wood element, and the final third hardened into a cool surface which was her favorite element: ice.

Naruto's…did nothing. This of course caused the three to look up confused as to what happened. He decided to enlighten them.

"There are two reasons Naruto's card is blank. He either has no element alignment yet, which is probably most likely. Or, he is incapable of having an elemental alignment, which although plausible is less likely. Either way we'll check in at a later time." Naruto nodded, slightly downtrodden at this development.

"Alright let's get the three of you started on your first jutsu's." forming a hand seal he called up a mizu bushin and gave it some orders. "Head into the scroll room and get the ninjutsu scrolls I was just thinking about." The bushin nodded and headed out of the room confusing the three students.

Haku decided to ask the question on their minds, "Zabu-sensei(Haku's the only one who can get away with it.) why didn't you just tell your clone which scrolls to grab."

"Simple I wanted them to be a surprise." cue sweatdrops.

After a little bit of waiting the bushin returned with three scrolls. Zabuza took them and dismissed the bushin back to it's water-y substance. Turning to the three he handed them separate scrolls. Unrolling them they read the jutsu on the scrolls out loud.

"Suiton: Mizu-bushin no jutsu?"

"Raiton: Denkouheki no jutsu**(1)**?"

"WHAT?! Oiroke no Jutsu!!" heads turned at that to see Naruto curled up in a corner, with anime tears streaming down his face and depression cloud over his head.

Haku approached him. "Naruto-kun what's wrong?" she asked seeing the tears.

Naruto turned his head to her and answered "I thought that it was a technique I had invented myself and I find that one of my ancestors made it! Now I have no original techniques that I created myself." he broke off and succumbed back to his depression.

Kakan meanwhile took a peek at the scroll and couldn't help himself, he started laughing. Zabuza, knowing what the scroll entailed chuckled as well. Haku decided to see what the big deal was and looked at the scroll. The two laughing when they noticed she was reading the scroll. They were surprised when she remained calm and were sent into shock when she said, "This seems like a good jutsu."

Naruto was up and by her side "Finally! Someone else sees the merits of the Oiroke no Jutsu!"

Haku responded with, "Of course, something the could knockout a large amount of men, providing they're strait would be useful seeing as most bandits and ninja forces are made up of men would be a useful skill to have." (A/N: Since she's only a little girl her pervert-bashing instincts haven't awakened yet, that's why she's looking at this with logic.)

This made Naruto happy since everyone else usually called it a stupid or degrading jutsu.

Zabuza came to from his shock and addressed his students, "Okay gakis, lets get on with your training. Haku, take the teleportation seal to the water area and start on the Mizu bushin no jutsu." She nodded and moved over to the seal and disappeared with a poof of smoke, they looked over to the water area and saw a small puff. "Kakan head to the lightning area to work on your jutsu, it's a basic one so be careful on how much chakra you put into it okay?" He nodded and picked up his scroll then moved over to the seal as well. He too left in a poof. Zabuza then turned his attention back to the boy in front of him. "Well, since it seems like you already know this jutsu I think we should look for another in the library." Naruto nodded and they both went over to the library to search for a jutsu for him.

They arrived in the room and moved over to the non-elemental techniques. Zabuza pulled off the shelf a scroll labeled 'Ninpou: Bushin no Jutsu'. He threw it a Naruto who started to read it while Zabuza said the after he read he wanted him to try to focus on making two clones of himself. When he finished Naruto put his hands into the ram seal and accessed his chakra stores. Nothing happened. Naruto looked down while Zabuza had a contemplative look on his face. He hmm-ed and pulled out a scroll labeled 'Kage Bushin no Jutsu' down from the shelf. "Here Naruto. Take a look at this scroll." He threw him the kage bushin scroll and watched as the brunette read the scroll. The boy nodded and tried out the Jutsu. Naruto put his hands into a cross-shaped hand seal and called out the name of the jutsu. Two shimmers took place on either side of Naruto as the shadow clones came into existence. Naruto looked confused while Zabuza was beginning to have his suspicions confirmed . He reached into the shelf again and pulled out a scroll with the Kanji for Henge no Jutsu on it. He threw the scroll at one of the Narutos and told him to read it then try it. The Naruto with the scroll read it and tried to do the Jutsu with no success. He tried again only to meet similar results. All three Naruto's were now looking confused. "Naruto dismiss your clones and I'll explain what's going on."

The Narutos nodded and two of the poofed out of existence, the scroll dropping to the floor. Naruto flinched for a second as knowledge he most certainly didn't have a minute ago entered his head. He told Zabuza about the influx of knowledge. His sensei looked confused as well and the both picked up the Kage Bushin scroll and looked thru it carefully. They were both surprised to read that when a Kage bushin gets created, it essentially becomes a recorder as well, meaning that anything the clone learned that didn't involve gaining muscles or increasing stamina would be transmitted back to the creator of the bushin. Both of their minds were running warp speed at the possibilities of the jutsu and Zabuza resolved to learn the technique A.S.A.P. But, they both knew they would have to be careful with it, the scroll stated that it required a lot of chakra to make ten or more clones and that the information gained from too many clones could mentally damage a person.

Zabuza decided to have Naruto create another two clones and get them started on the tree climbing exercise to work on his chakra control. Naruto had been skeptical at the idea of walking on trees, and by skeptical we mean that he ruptured his sensei's eardrums when he shouted in disbelief. This earned him a bonk on the head from Zabuza's zanbatou. Fearing another bonk he quickly set to the exercise. His poor control led him to hitting his head on the stone floor.

With the other two, the day passed with minimal success. Haku had only managed to get a tremor from the pool of water, despite her affinity with ice which was made up of water. Kakan just barely felt a static charge despite being in a lightning filled area.

With these failures in mind Zabuza, at dinner, told them they would be incorporating the same chakra control exercises Naruto was doing at the moment, the tree climbing exercise. The two exchanged fearful looks upon seeing Naruto's head with it's many bumps and bruises. They were starting to regret taking on this training.

The next day they went through their taijutsu katas in the morning as well as physical conditioning. After breaking for lunch they gathered in the weapon room to begin their weapons instruction. The three currently sat cross-legged in front of their zanbatou-toting sensei as he explained why they would each be trained to use weapons.

"Now, some fights can't be won by using flashy jutsu or with your fists and feet. Some missions will require you to assassinate someone and the quietest way to do that is with a good old fashioned slit neck. That is why you'll each learn to use the three basic shinobi weapons and hopefully master one weapon of your choice. Except you Naruto." a confused look came from said boy.

"Since you're going to be our weapons expert you won't be able to master one type of weapon. You're going to have to learn to use a wide variety of weapons. The Kage Bushin no Jutsu will help with this if you can create more. I'll be satisfied if with each weapon you can defeat a chunin with it since you will also use taijutsu and ninjutsu to fight." He then moves over to address Kakan.

"With you Kakan, you'll also be fighting with Kenjutsu with that style you got on that scroll right?(nod) Okay, but until then we'll get you a practice sword and start working on muscle memory. This means that I'm going to have you constantly have you do straight slashes over and over again until you got them down. Then we'll go through the basic attacks of the style and wait a couple years to build up the muscles in your legs before we start working on moving at those high speeds the scroll mentions." Then came Haku.

"Now Haku, when we we're attacked by those bandits I noticed you made a bow from two of your elements. Have you had any prior instruction with a bow?"

Haku nods her head and says, "My kaa-san used to teach me how to use it, just in case I would need it."

Zabuza nods and continues, "Then I guess that's your weapon of choice then?"

"Hai, Zabu-sensei." Haku replies.

He groans in response, "Haku, what have I told you about calling me that?"

"Just don't do it in front of others."

He sweatdropped, having forgot about telling her that, he cleared his throat, "Alright then. I guess that covers your weapons then." He stopped as he remembered something, "Naruto, when will that sakabatou be finished?" he questioned having seen Naruto start on it last night.

Naruto brought a hand up to his chin and went over the process, "Well, maybe about a week and a half to get the blade itself done. I want to fold the metal over many times so that it will be strengthened and then I want to inscribe a rune on it that will only let Kakan draw it from it's sheath and also so that anyone whom Kakan hasn't okay-ed will have a hard time lifting it up. I'll need him to drop a little of his blood on both the runes in order for it to work. So, I may have the whole thing finished in around two weeks time." he concluded leaving everyone shocked, "I had a couple shadow clones reading up on some forging scrolls last night and dispelled them this morning before you all woke up."

Zabuza nodded and clapped his hands together. "Right then, lets get started on this part of your tortu… sorry, training." The three students once again had a feeling of foreboding.

--6 months Later—

Naruto, Haku, and Kakan, now age 9, stood in front of Zabuza as they prepared to leave for Kirigakure no Sato. The three had undergone minor changes.

Naruto still kept his hairstyle and headband the same as well as his clothing, but now he had from the middle of his forearms to his knuckles wrapped in white tape with the ends colored black. He also carried a large rolled up scroll horizontally on his back. Unfortunately he hadn't grown any.

Haku braided her long hair into a ponytail with two bangs going down the side of her face. Her clothing stayed the same as when the year began. Now she carried on her back a bow she had made with her wood element skills and had added some carvings to it, mainly it looked like the points were wrapped with leafy vines. She also carried a small quiver on her back with a special seal on it that allowed it to recall the arrows into the quiver after they had struck their target.

Kakan, still preferred to wear the karate gi, pants, and tabis. His smoky white hair was still kept short and flat with thin bangs spread out the front, but he had grown out a long, pencil-thin ponytail running down his back (saito hajime with ponytail as thin as one of his bangs). He carried the sakabatou Naruto had made on his back since he was still to short to put it at his side, the hilt was a shiny black with jade green wrappings that were the same color of his eyes. The tsuba(guard) of the sword was a six point star. Decorating the silver sheath were shiny, black kanji that stated: 'To wield a sword is to wield one's soul.'. He had been memorized by the care and proficiency his friend had put into making this blade for him.

At the end of their training each had only managed to learn two jutsu each, but each had started on the water walking exercise. Zabuza was very proud of how much the three 9-year olds in front him had learned, he was certain that at least three times out of seven they would be able to defeat a low-level genin with the skills they had gained. Of course, they still had a ways to go before they could become shinobi. After all, he still had to sign them up at the Kiri ninja academy. Then they had to get through the graduation exam in whichever section they were assigned to after their first year there. But, even though they had to go through all that he was certain that they would make it thru their academy years easily. He had no doubt.

But now was not the time to be pondering the future. Right now they had to leave for Kiri, leaving the place that had quickly become their home for a year. All of them felt sad they were leaving a place they had come to feel was home but they knew that they had to go, otherwise Zabuza would be declared a nuke-nin by Kiri and be hunted down by the hunter-nins and/or Anbu of Kiri. So it was with heavy hearts that the five of them set off for Mizu no Kuni and Kirigakure no Sato.

-1 week later-

After walking for a day and then having to sail across a small sea for two days, where they discovered that Shippou got seasick, and then trudging the rest of the week away they had finally arrived at Kirigakure no Sato. When they reached the edge of the village the saw that a moat surrounded what appeared to be a wall that rose up and down giving it a rolling wave look. This prevented the easy use of ladders from being set up. The moat was to give them a source of water to use suiton jutsu in defense of an attack.

Zabuza called for the bridge to be extended and the gate guards complied. After walking through the gates they saw that despite what they had been told the village itself was quite…normal. The only oddity was that there was a multitude of canals that crisscrossed through the streets with bridges here and there. Looking up they saw overhanging walkways were ninjas were running across, it had been created when the shinobi complained about crowds and having to use to much chakra to run across water.

They followed Zabuza as he led them to a large manor that had a gate with a crest of two zanbatous crossed together. He led them into the house and showed them were they would sleep. When they gathered into the living room Zabuza spread his arms and said, "Welcome to the Momochi manor and Kirigakure no Sato gakis!"

The three teared up and tried to tackle-hug him shouting "Zabuza-shishou!", he sidestepped them.

"Oi!! No hugging!!"

End of Chapter 4

Well, I've finally got them to Kirigakure. Now their instruction at the academy begins.

(1)-Denkouheki means Lightning Burst. C-class ninjutsu- What you do is gather an electrical current into yourself and then release it in order to stun those in the immediate area.

(2)- Kaosu-Ryoushi-Me means Chaos Hunter Eye. It will have three levels to it, what they do will be revealed later.

Let me know what you think. Did I do good describing their training? tell me honestly. just no flames.

Remember there are still polls going on so be sure to VOTE, plus go to my account or tell me in your review who Kakan should get from the choices. Don't forget about Naruto either.

So review….now

….okay….now.

C'mon just push the blue button.

\/ (psst) it's down there.


	5. First year started, Almost finished

Chapter 5

Uknown-nin345: Hello everybody and welcome Chapter 5 of Koujaku Naruto. I'd like to thank those who have read the previous four chapters and reviewed. Now, the poll standings:

Poll 1: What should Naruto's Elemental Affinity be? (Type in whatever you want, but he'll only be limited to one)

-Well, we have gotten 3 votes for the Wind element and 1 vote for the Water element. Be sure to say what you want because this poll will close next chapter.

Poll 2: Who should Naruto's pairing's be? Haku is already in. You get two choices. Poll will be open until the beginning of the Chunin Exams.

-Now we have:

A-Oc=1

B-Tenten=2

C-Temari=0

D-Yugito=7

E-Hana Inuzuka=6

It looks like it might end up a Naruto/Haku/Hana/Yugito pairing, so hurry up and vote! You still have 5 or 6 chapters left.

Poll 3: Who should my OC-Kakan be paired up with? Please choose only TWO women. (On my account.)

Votes so far are:

A) Oc (Extremely Shameless) -6

B) Shizune (will be 20) -5

C) Kurenai (same as Anko) -3

D) Anko (don't worry she'll be younger than canon)-5

E) Other (P.M. me as to who) -0

I was surprised to find a sudden surge in votes for Shizune. Any who, be sure to visit my account to choose which lovely ladies Kakan will be paired with. You still have two more chapters to vote! (A/N: This pairing will have a lot of humorous moments.)

Unknown-nin345: This chapter will start the learning at Kirigakure's Academy. Sometime during the Academy years Naruto will set out to find what his father left for him since he's only found his mother's stuff at the moment. There will be lots of humor during these next few chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other ideas, lines, weapons, clothes, and/or names from other books, manga, fan fictions, and/or movies. So don't complain.

In the Momochi clan house the five quickly got set into a system. Since they were back in Kirigakure there were times when Zabuza would be gone in the morning, or some other point of time in the day, and there would be a scroll detailing what he wanted them to do. At times it listed chores, others what there bi-daily training would entail since they took a break every other day. All three children were somewhat sad that they wouldn't be able to have their favorite food whenever they wanted, but if there was one thing they all agreed upon it was this: Never let Zabuza or Haku anywhere near the stove. This was decided when, on their third day in the village, both had tried to cook breakfast.

___________(Flashback)________________

Naruto sleepily sat up and looked around his room. Looking at the door he could see a small amount of smoke seeping through. When the smoke registered in his mind, he quickly bolted to the door _'Crap! Smoke equals fire! What the hell is going on?'. _Bursting into the hall still in his pajamas he saw Kakan coming out of his room as well. His panic was briefly subdued as he took in the little froggy-hat on top of his friend's hair. He couldn't help but laughing at the sight.

Kakan noticed the laughter, "What's so funny Naruto?"

Still roaring with laughter Naruto pointed at him, "(hahaha) Your little (hehheh) froggy!" he went back to only laughing.

Kakan blushed in embarrassment and quickly tore off the cap and threw it back into his room, "This one does not know what you're talking about!" seeing his friend still laughing at his froggy buddy, he went over to him and hit Naruto over the head, "Quit laughing. Right now we should go see what this smoke is about, that we should." For indeed over there heads in the hallway was a line of smoke.

Getting serious Naruto nodded and stood up from his laughing position on the floor, "Yosh."

Together they made their way through the halls, looking into rooms to see where the smoke was originating from. After checking many of them with no success they finally found the source. Standing over the over was Zabuza! In a pink apron! He seemed to be frying what might have started out as bacon but now looked like clumps of burnt rock. He also seemed to be humming a cheery tune.

Standing by his side was Haku who was also in a pink apron. When Kakan and Naruto had looked into the room she seemed to be fighting back a green goop that was…moving. She had finally forced it back into the pot with her spatula and slammed the cover back onto pot and turned to Zabuza with a pleased smile, "I think that the gravy is almost ready Zabu-sensei."

Zabuza sighed and looked down at the small girl, "Haku how many times have I told you not to call me that?!"

Haku suddenly gained teary eyes and pouted her bottom lip. This was the feared technique of all little children, especially girls: the Papi-Inu Matsuki no Jutsu (Puppy-dog Eyes technique)! "Z-Z-Zabu-sensei doesn't l-like the n-name I gave him? Waaa!" suddenly miniature waterfalls poured out of Haku's eyes as she went into the next stage: Kurokodairu Namidas (Crocodile Tears).

Kakan and Naruto, who still hadn't moved from their position's, sweatdropped as their sensei knelt down to Haku's side, saying that he loved the name she gave him, which caused her to abruptly stop her tears as a radiant smile appeared on her face as she cried out "Yay!" and launched herself up to his neck and wrapped him in a hug.

Shippou came in unnoticed and sniffed at the pot which held the goop. He froze before bolting away from the pot, yelping.

The sweatdrops on the two boys heads increased in size as they slowly backed away. They looked at each other and nodded in agreement, they were both going out to eat.

For the rest of the day Zabuza and Haku wondered why the boys never ate their food….that is until they tasted it themselves.

___________(Flashback end)_________________________

So now we find our group at a local barbeque discussing the children's up and coming entrance into the ninja academy, which would take place the next day.

"Well Naruto, I'm not sure if they would allow you to bring in Shippou with you. Techniqually he is ninja tool, being a familiar to you and all, but I don't think they'll let him in at that size, but I can't be really sure, Kirigakure doesn't have a clan that works together with animals." Zabuza said. Naruto had just asked if he would be allowed to bring Shippou into the academy with him.

Shippou who was lying with his head on his paws looked up, a ticked off expression on his wolf-ish face, "**You saying I'm fat iya-odeko**?" (no-brow)

Zabuza growled right back at him, the memory of losing his eyebrows still a sore subject, "No, you baka ookami. But it'll be kind of difficult to explain how a kid, who's not even an academy student even, has a larger-sized wolf than normal as his familiar."

Naruto however smiled, "That won't be a problem Zabuza-sensei." he placed a hand on Shippou's head and channeled some chakra. Everybody watched with wide eyes as Shippou gained a slight silver glow and shrunk down to the size of a wolf pup. Naruto picked him up and placed him beside him on the bench and explained to the still shocked group, "We've been practicing this for a while now. Now there shouldn't be any problems right sensei?"

Before Zabuza could answer however, Haku quickly picked up Shippou and started squeezing him. "He's so Kawaii now!" and continued the squeeze-fest, not noticing that Shippou, despite having gray fur, was steadily turning blue.

Kakan saved the now wolf pup and handed Shippou back to Naruto. The wolf looked back at Zabuza and asked in a squeaky little voice, "**Still think I'm fat now iya-odeko**?"

Zabuza just smirked right at the wolf, "Now that you mention it you do look pudgy." His smirk was wiped off his face as Shippou launched himself at the mans, face shouting in his squeaky voice "**Teme**!" The two went rolling to the ground as Shippou covered Zabuza's face.

The three children watched in amusement for a bit before Haku moved in and swept up Shippou who was still thrashing about. Haku stroked his fur, trying to calm him down. The pup slowly started to calm down under Haku's ministrations.

Zabuza stood up and coughed to clear his throat, determined to forget what just happened, "Anyways. Yeah there shouldn't be a problem when you head to the academy now, just keep him that size whenever you go to the academy ok Naruto?" receiving a nod he continued, "Also we just might find out why you can't do any genjutsu while you're there."

After the five of them finished their meat they went back to the clan house and went through their afternoon sparing matches.

(Flashcard descends with "The Next Day" written in red.)

The next morning saw Naruto (Shippou on his head), Haku, and Kakan, with Naruto having his large weapon scroll strapped to his back and Kakan with his sword hanging at his side, walking towards the Shinobi Academy. They arrived at the building and came up to the front desk. The woman at the desk looked up as they came in and asked, "What year are you?"

"This is our first time here ma'am." spoke up Naruto.

The receptionist nodded and wrote something down, "How old are the three of you?"

"9." "9." "8, but I'll be 9 in a couple of days." responded Kakan, Haku, and Naruto respectively.

The receptionist nodded again and looked through her files before pulling out one and looked at it. She wrote out three notes and handed them to the three standing before her. "Go to room 101 and tell the teacher there you're new students. Okay?"

The three kids and one pup nodded and walked through the hall before coming to the door they were told to go to. When they entered the room the kids that were in there stopped and looked at the three newcomers. Many of the girls thought that the two new boys looked cute, and the wolf pup known as Shippou didn't help any. The boys however thought that the two boys were show-offs that were trying to look cool. Haku, meanwhile, wasn't given much thought.

The sensei, a big and burly man wearing a metallic blue vest that was customary for chunin, noticed that his class had quieted down before class had even started, looked up from his lesson plans for these newbies and noticed that everyone was gazing over at the door. The man looked over and saw that there were three children standing in the door. _'Hmm…these brats are different from these other brats. They carry themselves with confidence and.."_ here the mans eyes widened. Unlike the other children in the room he could see that these new ones standing in the doorway had fought in battles and two of them had even killed before now.

He shook his head and spoke in a deep, gruff voice "You three hear to learn how to be shinobi?".

The three nodded, somewhat shakily from the intimidation the man before them put out. "Hai." they said in unison.

"Good." Came the rumble from the man, "Go and take your seats, class is about to begin." He watched as they took seats together in the same row. "Now, all of you in here will refer to me as Hiyakedo-sensei. AM I CLEAR!?" he said/asked the last part loudly.

"HAI!!" came back from the students.

Hiyakedo nodded at their enthusiasm. "Alright, for some of you I'll only be teaching you for only one year. The only ones I'll continue to teach will be those who decide to continue onto specialize in torture and interrogation, because after this year of learning is over you'll be evaluated to see which field of Shinobi talent you will do best in. Be it hunter-nin, a medic, being just a plain combat shinobi, or even for those who show the most promise with a sword; an apprenticeship with one of the Seven Swordsman." he smirked evilly at all the hopeful faces of the students, "But until then, you'll have to survive my torture." All the hopeful faces turned into fearful ones as the students all gulped. "Let's begin. Now chakra is the energy all shinobi utilize in order to perform jutsus'…." And so the rest of the day passed with a detailed explanation of chakra, including converting it to the elements.

________________________________________________________________________

(3-4 months later)

We see Naruto and Shippou (in puppy form) walking back to the clan house with shoulders sagging and sad expression. The reason for the expression was a small card that Naruto was holding, on it was a picture of him and 5 slots for bars, one slot however had no bar in it. It was because of that empty slot that Naruto was down in the dumps. He had been given this after the end of class….

----(Flashback #2)----

"…and that gakis, is why kunai are better than shuriken at close range fighting. (bell rings) All right then, tomorrow we're going to start working on your throwing weapon s skills. So be sure to bring in your sets of kunai and shuriken. Now get outta here!"

The children cheered and started running out of the class each stopping to bow to their sensei in thanks for teaching them. When Naruto was about to leave Hiyakedo called him up to his desk. When the student stood before the teacher he started speaking, "Naruto, ever since we started working on genjutsu I've noticed that you may know some of the answers to questions but every time we do something practical you always do the worst. So" he holds up a blank card " I ordered this special card. What you do is pour your chakra into it and 5 bars will show up. These fives bars will show your compatibility with the 5 sections of Ninja arts: Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Fuuin jutsu, and Heikijutsu."

He handed the card to Naruto who did as he was instructed. As he poured chakra into the card he saw his picture appear on it and the five bars pop up. The highest one was in taijutsu, followed by heikijutsu very closely, then came ninjutsu followed by fuuin jutsu with the tiniest bit of a bar showing up in the genjutsu slot. His face gained a shocked look, he had close to no skill in genjutsu! He showed his card back to Hiyakedo and watched as the man looked over the card.

Hiyakedo looked over the card critically. The boy before showed great aptitude for Taijutsu and using weapons. His ninjutsu could become better with work but he could tell that Naruto liked to fight face-to-face with his opponent. He knew that Naruto would have a bit of knowledge in the sealing arts seeing as how Hiyakedo could tell that Naruto's friend Kakan studied seals extensively. Plus, if the large scroll on his back was any indication, he at least knew how to seal stuff into scrolls. "Naruto." said boy looked up, "Have you ever found a way to transform without using genjutsu?".

Naruto was confused, _'Why would sensei want to know that? Hmmmm…maybe..'_ "Well, back when I was eight I invented a jutsu called Oiroke no Jutsu, I don't think that was a genjutsu."

The sensei looked interested, "Show me."

Naruto shrugged before forming the hand seals that started similar to the Henge no Jutsu, but he changed the last three seals. With a poof of smoke he changed into the nude, pigtailed version of himself with the customary little clouds covering the nipples of her d-cup bouncy breasts and her vagina.

There was one change however, she had seemed to grow wolf ears and tail, and the man Naruto used the technique on didn't go flying back with a nosebleed. His sensei stood there without even getting a nose bleed. Upon seeing the confused look of the transformed person before him he explained, "I have a wife and she's sexier than this form. Plus I know that you're really a boy under that and I'm no pedophile." Naruto nodded at the explanation. With that out of the way Hiyakedo continued analyzing Naruto _'Amazing, he has completely changed into a woman. Even his chakra signature is different!'_

Naruto's sensei motioned for him to undo the transformation. When the smoke cleared he said, "Naruto, when you did your technique just now you didn't simply take the appearance of a woman, you became a woman. If you focus enough you might be able to change into other things as well. Right now, I just want you to work and transforming into that female self of yours but, at your age of 9 okay? Once you can do that to my satisfaction we will move onto other stuff."

Naruto nodded and took back the card, but still looked down. He walked out of the class with Shippou following him.

-------(Flashback #2 end)---------

"Well, at least now we know why I can't do genjutsu huh Shippou." Naruto said as the two continued to walk down the empty street.

His familiar nodded his head and said, "**Well you weren't really one for genjutsu anyways, so it's not really that big of a loss. Could've been worse, like you could have had some sort of disease instead of just not having any talent for it.**"

Naruto snickered at the squeaky voice, even after 3 months of hearing it he still found it funny. "Yeah your right." he put his hand up to his chin, "I could try out what sensei said. Just got to make sure I only change my body, and not poof away my clothes." he looked down at himself and decided that it was suitable enough for a girl to wear, he had on a plain black t-shirt and black pants with his customary trench coat that bore his families symbol. He went through the hand seals for his unique transformation and focused hard on a female version of himself that was his age but throughout this even though he was focusing he didn't notice that he was gathering too much chakra, Shippou however did and tried to shout out a warning "**Naruto wait! That's too much**—". He didn't get to finish since Naruto finished his hand seals.

In a poof of smoke a female version of the 9 year old Naruto. The 'he' now a 'she' had brown hair with silver stripe that went down her back into two separate, short ponytails (like Tsunade). Her clothes had changed a bit as well. She was now wearing a silvery t-shirt and a light blue skirt. Naruto's boots had been replaced by the regular shinobi sandals. With a sweatdrop Shippou finished "…**chakra. (sigh)**"

The girl tilted her head, "Nani? What do you mean too much chakra?"

The wolf pup gestured with a paw, "**Try to dispel it.**" With a nod the female Naruto formed her hands into the ram seal and said "Kai."

….nothing happened….

Naruto started panicking when she…he didn't feel the transformation dispel. He (or is it she?) tried again but it still didn't disappear, with scared eyes he turned to his wolf familiar and said in his now female voice "What the hell just happened?! Why am I still a girl?"

Shippou sighed again and looked at him…err…her _'gah, this is confusing'_ exasperatedly, "**Baka. You used too much chakra when forming the hand seals, so I'm guessing you might be stuck for a while. I'm not sure how long though.**"

Naruto quickly snatched up her, no, his, no, her wolf pup and tore off to the clan house. She/he burst through the door and saw Haku and Kakan sitting in front of the T.V. watching some Anime. They looked up and shot to their feet when they saw and unknown person standing in their doorway. Naruto threw up his/her arms and shouted, "Matte Haku-chan, Kakan! It's me, Naruto."

The two had skeptical looks before Shippou spoke in his squeaky voice, "**Hai it's him, I mean her, I mean…gah. It's Naruto okay? The baka messed up a jutsu by using too much chakra, now this baka is stuck as a girl for an unknown amount of time.**"

After hearing this explanation the two looked at each other before they both broke down laughing at the plight of their friend. Naruto stomped her/his foot down and shouted, "It's not funny. I'm really a girl now!" Haku stopped laughing at this but sadly Kakan did not.

While Kakan was cradling his head in pain Haku turned to the 'female yet still male' Naruto and asked, "But how? I thought you couldn't do genjutsu."

Naruto nodded and showed Haku the card, "Your right I can't. But this isn't a genjutsu it's a ninjutsu, that Oiroke no jutsu I told you about. This is just the 9-year old version of it. Technically I can only recognize genjutsu enough to dispel it, for some reason I can't perform it."

Haku nodded as she looked over the card when a question came to her, "Where did you get this Naruto-chan?"

"From Hiyakedo-sensei. That's what he held me after for, it shows which ninja art you have the most potential for . He showed me the card and asked if I knew and ninjutsus that would allow me to transform. So I showed him the Oiroke, surprisingly he didn't faint." Haku looked up with an eyebrow raised, "Yeah, he said that he had a wife and that since he knew it was really me underneath the transformation he didn't want to consider himself a pedophile. So he told me to first practice lowering the age of the Oiroke and then when I could do that to his satisfaction we would move onto other objects."

Haku nodded, "That does make sense." she turned the card over in her hands, "How does this work?"

"Oh. You channel your chakra into the paper and it'll tell you your stats." Naruto supplied.

Haku did so and the bars shifted. The Genjutsu bar went up to nearly the top of the card, the Taijutsu bar dropped down to become level with the fuuin jutsu bar which also shrunk, The ninjutsu bar rose up a bit to become the second highest and the weapon skill bar dropped a bit but stayed above the Tai and Fuuin bars.

The card was suddenly snatched from her hand as Kakan sprang up saying, "It's this one's turn!". He pushed his chakra into the card and the bars moved again. This time the Fuuin bar was the highest out of the five, second was the Ninjutsu bar, located at just above the middle of the bar graph was the Taijutsu bar, then came the weapons skill bar at middle height, then at the bottom was the genjutsu bar about a quarter of the way up.

After punching Kakan in the head for doing that so suddenly Haku said, "So all in all, Naruto-kun has the best aptitude for Taijutsu, Kakan would do best in Fuuin jutsu, and I would benefit most from learning Genjutsu."

Naruto nodded, "Seems like it." He/she looked down at Kakan, who was groaning 'Oro~ro' with swirly eyes "What do we do know?"

The dragon hanyou shrugged her shoulders, "Wait for Zabu-sensei to get home?"

"That would probably be best."

With that the two sat down on the couch and went back to watching the anime that had been forgotten, it had something to do with giant robotic suits piloted by certain people and used to fight in special fights.

-That evening-

Haku and Naruto sat at the dinner table eating some food that Naruto had prepared. Kakan had decided to go out and get in some practice using the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques since he still wasn't fast enough for the god-like speed that came with it…after seeing that Haku was in the kitchen. The two had just finished when they heard the distinctive sound of their sensei coming through the door.

"Goddamn fucking border patrol. Making me fucking run through swamps and bogs, goddamn Mizukage bastard. So gonna kill him." The form of their grumbling sensei/father-figure (though Zabuza would never admit to it) appeared in the kitchen doorway. He stopped when he saw that there were two girls sitting at the table, "Uhh, whose your friend Haku?"

The two looked at each other before looking back at Zabuza, Haku decided she would speak "Umm, Zabu-sensei, this is Naruto."

Stunned, Zabuza just stood there not moving in the doorway. When he didn't move the two got up and started randomly poking their teacher in various places.

Naruto turned over to Haku and said, "I think you broke him Haku-chan."

"I think so too. Maybe we should get some water and splash him in the face." She said back to Naruto. Nodding they grabbed a water balloon and filled it up at the sink. It grew to such a size that the two had to team up to hold it, moving carefully they made their way back to Zabuza's stone-still form. When they stood before him they took aim, and threw the large water-filled balloon right at his face. When the balloon burst and the water spread Zabuza…stayed still.

The two girls sweatdropped. Naruto moved over to the fridge and pulled out a pie he had made the other day. Facing Zabuza he took aim and hurled the pie at the comatose sensei's face.

Zabuza spluttered as the pie hit his face, he wiped the general bit covering his face off then pointed at Naruto, "What the hell! How did you become a fucking girl?!"

Naruto shrugged, smiling sheepishly, "Too much chakra being used in a jutsu."

The eyebrow-less swordsman studied her/him for a minute, judging how long it would last based on the chakra output from the jutsu, "Well based on the chakra you're outputting because of the jutsu, I'd say you'll be stuck like this for…oh, a little over a week."

"NANI!!"

"Yup, congratulations gaki you get to see what it's like to be a girl for a week. Good going."

Suddenly Naruto appeared in a corner with depression clouds hanging over him/her with tears running down her/his face.

Haku decided to try to comfort her friend, "Being a girl isn't so bad Naruto-chan. (she put her hand on her chin) Although we may have a bit of a dilemma when it comes to the Academy," Seeing Naruto sink deeper into his depression she smiled and started waving her hands in front of her, "D-d-don't worry, we'll think of somehting Naruto-chan. Speaking of which, we're going to have to come up with a cover name for your girl side. Hmmm…how about Izumi Kouu?"

"Spring Rain?" came the deadpanned response form Naruto.

A sudden burst of roaring laughter came from Zabuza, who was wiping away tears that came to his eyes because he was laughing so hard, "Bwahahaha…Spring Rain! Hahaha, it's perfect!"

"No one asked you Zabu-sensei!"

Zabu-sensei grew a tick mark over his eye and shouted, "Don't call me that!!"

The two girls exchanged a glance, nodded, and proceeded to tag-team Zabuza with the Papi-Inu Matsuki no Jutsu, "Z-Zabu-sensei d-doesn't like his n-n-name? Waaaaaa!!!" and immediately went to the Kurokodairu Namidas stage.

Zabuza tried to futilely turn his head to the side so he wouldn't be broken by the sight, _'Won't give in! Won't give in! Won't- ah who am I kidding? I can't help but give in, stupid puppy dogs and crocodiles! Those two animals shouldn't exist!'_ he sighed and turned back to the two, still crying, girls and grudgingly ground out, "Fine. You can call me that."

"Yay!" came from the two as they leapt up to give their sensei a hug. It quickly ended as the two ran off before they pushed their luck.

Zabuza sighed and moved over to the pot and scooped out some of the noodles laying in there. "Man, can't believe they got me with that, usually it's only Haku who does it." He paused to lower his trademark 'mouth-wrap' and slurp up some of the noodles in his bowl, "Still (chew chew) the gaki makes good ramen (sluuurp)."

--The next day—

The three arrived the next day at the academy before the other students got there. They quickly made there way to Hiyakedo-sensei to see what could be done.

"Well, you certainly managed to make the transformation younger. At least that's done, but you say you're stuck like that for a little over a week? (three simultaneous nods were his answer) Very well. I suppose I could tell the other students that you are a student who's involved in a little exchange program that'll last for the week and that Naruto is taking your place in the class you came from (sigh). Kids are so troublesome"

(As he finished his sentence a lazy slacker in Konoha sneezed "Troublesome cold.")

The three nodded and the day passed without too much incident, with only a couple questions on where Naruto had gone. They spent the rest of the day doing practical work that involved throwing the three main shinobi ranged weapons: Kunai, Shuriken, and Sebon needles. Naruto/Kouu excelled in two of the three, only being bested by Haku in the Sebon needle portion.

---A little over a week later---

The group of six (the sixth being Hiyakedo-sensei) were waiting at the Momochi clan house for Kouu's/Naruto's jutsu to dispel. As Naruto was standing around waiting he/she started to feel a little funny. She gripped her stomach as he was consumed in a poof of smoke he became a boy again, except he was naked. Haku was the only one who didn't laugh, instead she blushed cherry red and fainted. Naruto quickly ran from the room to find some of his clothes, leaving the three laughing males and laughing wolf.

----7 months later----

Hiyakedo stood before his students immensely proud of being the first to teach such a good crop, he was pretty sure that none would be forced to abandon their shinobi career, at least right now. He had gone through the beginning of each profession a shinobi could aspire to ranging from a career in the hospital to hunter-nin to just being a plain old ninja. He had found it immensely amusing when, halfway through the year Naruto and Kakan fan-clubs developed. He wasn't surprised at all since those two were at the top of the class in nearly everything except medical knowledge and genjutsu, even then the third member of their little trio Haku was at the top. He always laughed when the two burst through the door close to faint saying that their physical exercise was done for the day, they still managed to get away even when this close to the end of the year.

Speaking of which…

'BANG' "YES!!""YOSH!!"

The sensei turned his attention to the door and caught sight of the two boys (Naruto's wolf was being held by Haku), both collapsed against the door, having escaped the horde of fangirls for today.

Kakan turned his head to Naruto and, while still taking deep breaths, said, "This one thinks that he saw girls from the upper years in that crowd."

Naruto, breathing deeply as well, nodded "Yeah. I think I saw them too." he suddenly turned angry eyes over at his friend, "Just what the hell did you think you were doing?!"

"Oro?"

"That basket with the cute puppies was obviously a trap set by those fangirls! Why did you have to pick it up!?" Naruto shouted.

"This one could not help it! Those puppies looked so sad in that little cardboard box that this one just had to take them to the nearby shelter that he did!" Kakan defended with small tears.

Naruto sighed, "Next time, we check to see if it's a trap first okay?"

"Very well Naruto."

"A-hem!" the two looked up at their towering sensei, "Would you mind taking your seats now or do want to discuss with the class how you two managed to be almost ten minutes late?!"

The two meep-ed before quickly running to take seats next to Haku, who handed the wolf pup over to Naruto. Shippou moved up to lay down on Naruto head, gaining a disgruntled look from said boy.

Hiyakedo nodded in satisfaction before beginning to speak, "Now, if you can remember from the start of the year. I said that for some, this would be my only year teaching you. That is because today you will go through a series of challenges and obstacles that will lead up to a big tournament between the ten with the best scores in the class right now, then the winner of that tournament will fight in a free-for-all against the other first year classes. These challenges and obstacles will tell us which shinobi occupation you are best suited for. That is why I had gone over the basic part of every field of occupation you can find in Kirigakure. Some of you may be chosen to start training as hunter-nins, others may be told they could best benefit as a medical shinobi. There are more and what you show today will determine that. Follow me outside to where we will begin your evaluations."

The children stood up as their sensei led them to a large room that none of them had entered before. In the room was a large obstacle course. Some of it they couldn't see because it extended into what looked like an ingrown forest and bog surprisingly. When they listened closely they could hear snapping coming from the bog area and hisses in the forest section. Everyone started looking a little fearful of what might be inside there.

Hiyakedo clapped his large hands together as he cheerily asked, "Any volunteers?" For a minute no one stepped forward, then just as the sensei was about to call out a name, Naruto stepped up with a hardened expression (he's still scared). "Very good!" he gestured to a red line next to him, "When you step past this line you will be timed, how fast you make it through will be a factor in deciding where you will be placed. Before you start however listen up. There are a total of ten targets in there. You must hit at least six of them in order to pass. This will also factor in your placement. Are you ready?"

Naruto nodded and stepped up to the line, handing Shippou to Haku and making sure his scroll was secure. The seal where he would swipe his blood across for a weapon other than his kunai and shuriken showing proudly. He stood at the line, waiting for his sensei's word to begin.

"Ready?...Steady…GO!!"

At the final word Naruto rushed into the course. After a couple feet he saw Shuriken flying at him in his peripheral vision. Thinking quickly he stopped and bit his thumb to summon a pair of metal nunchacku from the scroll. Taking one in each hand he started to spin them at high speeds, knocking the shuriken out of their flight path with light chinks signifying each successful block. When the volley ended he saw a target out of the corner of his eye behind a bush, spinning one of his nunchacku he threw it at the wooden dummy of a person, knocking it's head off. With a poof the weapon went back into the scroll thanks to a returning seal Kakan had placed on all his weapons inside the scroll so that if they ever went a certain distance from him, different for each weapon, it would go back into the scroll so it wouldn't be stolen. Moving quickly he sealed the other weapon back into the scroll and continued through the course. He jumped up to a platform as he came up to a zip line that was over a pit. He grabbed onto the hook and pushed off from the platform, he was surprised when logs started launching up out of holes in the pit. He brought his legs up and bent his body out of the way of them, narrowly getting hit. He reached the end of the zip line and saw another target located in the shadow of a tree, which soon had three kunai stuck in the places where a person would have their brain, heart and jugular vein. He moved on, leaving the easily replaceable kunai in the target and moved forward to the start of the forest section of the obstacle course. Moving through the trees he suddenly jumped back as a large python struck out at him. He quickly brought out two kunai in reverse grips for both hands and settled into the defensive stance of his Muay Thai taijutsu style. The snake stared at him for a moment, eyeing him hungrily, before with quick speed it tried to sink it's fangs into Naruto. In response Naruto spun around the attacking snake and plunged into it's skull with both kunai before it could pull it's head back. The snake crumpled to ground and twitched a bit before poofing into smoke to reveal a third wooden dummy. He rushed on again, the fourth target attempting to 'ambush' him, meaning it was thrown from behind him as he exited the woods. He summoned a naginata from the scroll and swiped cleanly thru the wood with the short blade on the end of the staff. He sealed the weapon back into the scroll through use of the special seal that Kakan had developed, he simply pictured which weapon he needed and had to wipe his blood across the seal and 'poof' there was the weapon, Kakan had come up with it halfway through the school year after he saw the trouble Naruto went through in retrieving a weapon from his scroll. Moving on though, Naruto ran through the deceivingly empty stretch of land between the forest and the bog. A snap alerted him that he had foolishly tripped a hidden wire, without pause he hit the deck as three fuuma shuriken that had been hidden under a genjutsu were launched at him, thanks to his quick thinking they simply flew right over him. As he jumped back up he heard two 'thunks' which meant they had run into wood. Quick glances showed targets 5 and 6, 5 with two of the fuuma shuriken lodged in it and 6 with the large throwing star where the head would've been. A satisfied nod and he was off to the bog.

---With the other students—

Haku looked up at their sensei and asked a question that had come to her mind, "Sensei, why can't we see what Naruto-kun is doing?"

Hiyakedo looked down at her and answered, "Well, there is a privacy seal set up around the perimeter of the obstacle course. This makes it so that whoever is running in the course at the time doesn't have to worry about others seeing how bad or good they did. After all, deception is a ninja's greatest weapon, the less an opponent knows about you the more you can surprise them."

The students all nodded at what their sensei said, they all had that lesson drilled into their heads a lot of times.

--Back with Naruto—

"Stupid bogs. Can't believe they're making us go through this." Naruto grumbled out as he once again slapped his neck to stop the midges that were present. "What do they eat, when they can't get ninja?!"

He had been wandering in the mist-filled bog for around a minute and still hadn't found one of those fucking wooden targets! _'So gonna get sensei when I get out of here. If the Oiroke didn't work maybe Haremu will. No straight person has been able to resist that yet.'_ he thought with a vengeance directed at his sadistic sensei. He stopped as he caught the sound of a splash to his left. Lashing out with a couple shuriken, he listened to see if he had hit anything. The only sounds that came from the direction was splashes from the shuriken hitting the water, damn....Wait! He moved in that direction after hearing a dull thunk come from over here. Moving blindly thru the mist he stopped as he felt his left hand brush up against wood. He place both hands on it and moved them over it. A quick search revealed that this was a wooden dummy, and that his shuriken had hit where an important piece of male anatomy would have been. "Alright so that makes seven out of ten" he whispered softly to himself. He was brought from his musings as a sharp pain erupted from his rear end. He hopped around screaming whatever obscenities he knew as he tried to grab what ever had bit him in the ass. Finally his fingers caught on to a slimy little fish with very sharp teeth, "Great they put freaking piranhas in this stupid bog." he sliced off the fishes head with a kunai and moved on. It was close to the end of the course that two more of the dummies popped up, spinning he quickly drew out a nodachi and sliced the heads of off the two dummies then crossed the finish line of the course. _'Man, only got nine of them.'_

With a sense of vertigo he appeared back in front of the other students with a confused expression on his face and sticky note attached to his forehead. Before he could remove the note his sensei stepped up and tore it off before reading off the words written on it, "Uzumaki Naruto. Time: 09 minutes 50 seconds. Dummies hit: 9/10. Very good Naruto." Naruto bowed and sat down next to Haku, taking Shippou back and placing him on his head, "You're up neeexxxtt…Himura Kakan."

With a sigh Kakan stood and stepped up to the line. When he got there he looked up at Hiyakedo and asked, "Does this one really have to do this?"

"If you want to get placed into the next year, otherwise we stick you with a boring desk job."

With a nod Kakan switched his sakabatou hilt around so that when he drew it, the sharp part would be facing outwards. Upon seeing the confused look from his sensei he answered, "With an inanimate object there is no room for hesitation with this weapon. Thus it would be best to always swing with the edge of the blade that it would." Then, without warning stepped through across the line and vanished from everyone's view.

---With Kakan---

As soon as he stepped over the line he decided to forgo looking for the targets and made to run straight thru the course. This would of course mean that he would hit less targets but the faster time might make up for it. So he rushed forward, not pausing as the shuriken came flying at him from the side. He drew his sakabatou and blocked the throwing stars before tossing his own at the dummy. Without checking to see if they hit he ran forward again and hopped up the zipline at high speeds. He too managed to dodge the trees and swiped his sword straight thru the tree that the second dummy was hiding behind using Batoujutsu. When the snake struck from the forest he used one of the two techniques of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu style that he had mastered so far: Hi Ryu Sen. His sheath struck the snake straight in it's head, leaving it stunned which allowed him to jab a kunai into it's head. The snake form vanished in the poof of smoke, showing Kakan that he had gotten another of the dummies. It was while he was still moving rapidly through the forest that the next snake attacked and managed to get a bite. This was met by a curse, "Goddamned Fucking Snakes!!" he tore the snake off his arm, ignoring the four pinpricks in his arm as he stared it in the eyes, "I hate you." The snake, if possible seemed to give him a superior look that all but screamed, 'What are you gonna do about it? I'm not real.' Kakan quickly cut off the mocking snakes head and moved on. When he got out of the forest and into the stretch of land between the forest and bog he threw himself to the ground to dodge the hail of kunai. When the s.f.p.t.s passed he stood up ranting in his head, _'Great, now even in this one's mind Naruto's still got this one saying s.f.p.t.s . Just great.' _You see, Naruto had one day started calling all throwing metallic weapons s.f.p.t.s or Sharp Flying Pointy Things and he wouldn't stop. With a shake of his head, Kakan looked around and quickly spotted where the next two dummies were and unleashed the other technique in his arsenal with a cry, "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu: Do Ryu Sen!". He slashed the sword along the ground and channeled his chakra into the strike so that instead of simple mounds of earth were being launched it was spikes of earth, something that he had discovered after he had learned of his Doton affinity and had tried it with the technique. The spikes launched at the two dummies and shred them to pieces. On the move again he wasted no time in the bog and simply ran through the whole thing, dodging the projectiles thrown at him and the piranhas as he ran. He sped across the empty plain, sakabatou drawn incase of a surprise attack. His foot snagged on a hidden wire and he luckily tripped. As he lay on the ground he heard the two fuuma shuriken buzz over head. When he deemed it safe he saw that there were two targets to the left and right of him, he threw couple shuriken and kunai at the both of them and rushed on. He smiled with excitement as the finish line came into view and poured on more speed, completely ignoring the two target right before the finish line in his haste. He ran across the line and was instantly transported back to the starting point, unfortunately he didn't stop and ran headlong into a tree that was close to where everyone else was sitting.

All the other children watched as he smashed face-first into the tree, stay like that for a second or two, then watch as he fell backwards with swirls for eyes muttering his classic "Oror~o." No one couldn't laugh at what he just did, even Hiyakedo-sensei cracked up before taking pity on the boy and went to pick him up before carrying him back to the group.

After Kakan regained consciousness he was read his results by his sensei, "Well Kakan you got: 7 minutes 30 seconds as your time, making you the second fastest time on this course, the fastest being Seta Soujiro 6 years ago. However, you only hit 6 out of the 10 targets. Be glad your fast time will help your overall score."

He then called up random students, most getting 5-7 targets and 9½ to 11 minutes in time with various methods of destroying the dummies. There was even one kid who took his time destroying the targets, this one managed to get all ten of them even if he got the longest time.

Finally Haku was called up as the last person to go. Before she crossed the line, she made sure that her bow was properly stringed and that the line was taut. She then made sure that her sebon needles were in place as well before nodding up at her sensei "Ready to go Hiya-sensei!"

Said sensei just sweatdropped and sighed in defeat, _'She's never going to stop calling me that. (Sigh)…great I just sighed in my own mind.'_ "Alright, get ready…set…gorilla!" Haku facefaulted as she started to run at the 'go' part with her sensei roaring with laughter. "Hoo, oh man that was great, been waiting to try that all day. Heh. Now get going!"

Sweatdrop still in place she took off across the line, bow at the ready.

---Haku's course run---

Haku was really glad that she was able to use wood jutsu since it allowed her to sense where the wooden dummies were. The first one she sensed was hidden under a special grass camouflage which she quickly pegged with an arrow and moved carefully forward. The course proved easy (except for the snake ambush in which she accidentally ran it through with an ice spike) for her as she systematically took out all the other dummies and even froze one of the piranha and shot two more. She crossed the finish line confidently.

When she appeared back at the start she was read out her score from their sensei. "Alrighty Haku, you managed to hit all ten targets and your time was 10 minutes even. So you got a near per-" he was cut off as an arrow was aimed at his 'little buddy' with Haku having a deadly face. Gulping nervously he said, "Err… actually perfect score for you. Yes, perfect score." in the background he could hear the other children laughing at him.

Haku's demeanor instantly brightened as a cheery smile graced her face, "Arigatou Hiya-sensei!" she then skipped away to sit down by Kakan and Naruto, who began congratulating her on her recent actions, bringing a blush to her face.

Hiyakedo scowled and shouted at the chattering children "Yamero! Stop that chattering." the class quiets down as he continues, "Do not think that just because you have made it thru an obstacle course set up for first year academy means that you should be celebrating! The shinobi world is going to be much more difficult than this! You still have another challenge to participate in that will further determine what section you will be placed in for the next two years." He stopped to catch his breath and saw that some of the children had fearful looks, probably from his shouting. He sighed and took a deep breath to calm his nerves, "I apologize for my shouting just now. But! That does not mean that anything I said just now is any less true, the shinobi world will be tougher than this and those of us who teach at this academy where you all learn all want to prepare you for that world." He looked over their faces and kept speaking, "I will not lie to you, in your third year at this academy you will be put through an exercise where you will have to kill. This way you won't freeze up in battle and possibly lose your life or endanger those of your comrades."

The students stared at their sensei as he spoke, and when he finished they all looked around at each other. Naruto and Kakan exchanged a glance, unspoken words flowing between them, and both nodded at the same time with determination filling them. Haku glanced at both boys and the puppy in her arms, Shippou looked up at her and gave her a tiny lick, gaining a giggle from her.

Hiyakedo looked on at his class, glad he had decided to give that little speech on what they would be doing. He gestured for them to follow him, "Stand up, because now class we will have that preliminary tournament to decide who will face off in the battle royal tomorrow."

The students did as instructed and followed their sensei out to the sparring mats behind the academy. Hiyakedo turned around and pulled out the list that held the names of the top ten students in the class. "Alright, like I said earlier we're going to have a tournament to see who will participate in the battle royal tomorrow against the other first year classes. Ranked 10th is: Minamoto Katsu." a boy garbed in a samurai's battle kimono with a small wakizashi stepped forward, "Ranked 9th is: Kuhonbatsu Taishi." here a boy wearing what looked like a loose purple suit and odd glasses stepped up. The odd glasses were designed with a small 'w' on the sides and the lenses were in the shape of a 'v', his hair was a light brown with long spikes pointing forward, his face bore an amused grin. "Ranked 8th is: Doryuaku Ryuzei." up stepped a tomboy-ish girl that wore nondescript clothes, holding a bat with bent nails in it over her shoulder. "Next, ranked 7th is: Ryuhoshi Nobutada." Now the previous mentioned boy who had taken his time to destroy his wooden targets stood up next in line. "Alright now ranked 6th is: (a/n: guh, I'm starting to run out of ideas for names here, so just think up whatever name you want for the following ranks: 6, 5,& 3. Thank you.)" Then stepped up a boy wearing a miniature version of what Morino Ibiki wears in Konoha. "Ranked 5th in the class is: (insert random Japanese name here)." Another girl stood up, this one wearing a yukata top and purple shinobi pants with two sai held in straps on her legs. "Ranked 4th is: Koori Haku." She stepped up wearing her customary battle kimono and shinobi pants. Her bow was in it's place on her back, on her face was a serious expression. "In 3rd we have: (insert name here)." A boy who came from a clan that had been serving in Kirigakure since it's founding took his place in the line. His clothes were what you'd see on a typical shinobi. "These next two shinobi were tied for first and second place throughout most of the year, even now at this moment they are still tied for the first place position. Koujaku Naruto and Himura Kakan step forward." The two boys came to stand in front of their sensei with Shippou resting on Naruto's head. "Now at this point in time you two are tied for the first place rank, so here's how were going we're settle this. You two are going to play a round of Jan-Ken-Po." Every student there facefaulted at this. "What?! Some of your fights and battles will be won and you may only survive based on sheer dumb luck. So, boys take your positions."

Both nodded and turned so that they were facing each other. They then twisted their bodies so that their respective left sides were away from each other with their right hands covering the left. Together they went thru the shouts that were used during the game, "Jan!" they shifted a little bit, "Ken!" they leaned back in preparation, "PO!" A cloud of smoke came up as Hiyakedo released a smoke bomb in order to increase the dramatics.

The smoke was blown away by the wind revealing….

________________________________________________________________________MWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

EVIL CLIFFHANGER NO JUTSU!!!!

Unknown-nin345: Well the first year of the academy is almost done, the reason why I didn't finish it is because at this moment I can't really think of any fight scenes, especially those between first year academy students so I ended it with this evil cliffhanger to see who will get the first place spot, but don't tell me who you think it should be 'cause I'm gonna come up with a surprise. Also don't worry about the other 7 students the only one who will be a part of what's to come in the later academy years is Taishi (I'm going to model him after the same character with his name in the manga/video game Comic Party.)

So there it is the end of the chapter, I'll try to put a picture that shows their aptitude stats on my deviantart account so that you can get a clearer picture.

REVIEW

\/

VOTE!

\/

PRESS THE BLUE BUTTON

\/


	6. Year finished, Bad news is told

Chapter 6

Unknown-nin345: Never mind! I changed my mind about the whole waiting thing, but if you noticed Chapter 7 has been posted as well. Hooray for the readers! Be prepared for an evil cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, you have been warned.

Now for the votes!

Poll 1: What should Naruto's Elemental Affinity be? (Type in whatever you want, but he'll only be limited to one)

-Well, we have gotten 3 votes for the Wind element and 1 vote for the Water element. Be sure to say what you want because this poll will close next chapter.

Poll 2: Who should Naruto's pairing's be? Haku is already in. You get two choices. Poll will be open until the beginning of the Chunin Exams.

Now we have:

A-Oc=1

B-Tenten=2

C-Temari=1

D-Yugito=9

E-Hana Inuzuka=9

It looks like the Naruto/Haku/Hana/Yugito pairing is still in the lead, vote you never know what may happen, it might change! You still have until the Chunin Exams to vote.

Poll 3: Who should my OC-Kakan be paired up with? Please choose only TWO women. (On my account.)

Votes so far are:

A) Oc (Extremely Shameless) -11

B) Shizune (will be 20) -10

C) Kurenai (same as Anko) -5

D) Anko (don't worry she'll be younger than canon)-11

E) Other (P.M. me as to who) -1

Any who, be sure to visit my account to choose which lovely ladies Kakan will be paired with. Oh, and whoever it was that voted for other, please P.M. and tell me who your 'other' is, thank you. (A/N: This pairing will have a lot of humorous moments.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other ideas, lines, weapons, clothes, and/or names from other books, manga, fan fictions, and/or movies. So don't complain.

---------Begin Chapter---------

After a few suspenseful moments the smoke started to blow away, revealing Naruto and Kakan standing across from each other with their hands extended. The smoke blocked their object of choice. Everybody waited with baited breath as the last of the started to blow away to reveal what the two had chosen and promptly face-faulted.

…Both of them had picked rock…

Naruto sweat dropped at what just occurred and asked, "Sooo, what now?"

Kakan withdrew his hand and turned to Hiyakedo, who had a frown marring his face, "Sensei?"

The classes sensei simply shrugged and said, "Well I guess you both get the number one spot and nobody will be placed second." he held up his hands as his students shouting started to bombard him, "The reason why is you both had been in the first and second spots all year. Plus you two have been ahead of the other students by quite a bit so it wouldn't make any sense to raise someone up from where they currently are."

This mollified the crowd of students as Naruto and Kakan went to stand back in the line, amid some small bit of cheering from Haku.

Hiyakedo started speaking again after Haku had calmed down, "Right then, here's how were going to decide who fights who in our little tournament." He paused as he reached into his left-hand pocket and pulled out a large, stand-up spinning wheel that had ten different slots on it with kanji for the #'s between 1 & 10 listed, leaving many to wonder how it fit in there, and then he set it down beside him. He then reached into the pocket again and pulled out a portable blackboard (the kind that goes on wheels.). This was set down next to the spinning wheel.

He picked up a piece of chalk and proceed to draw what the tournament bracket would look like. The people that got the spot numbers for #1 and #2 would fight first, with the winner fighting whoever fought the winner between the people in the 3rd and 4th slots. Then the 5th and 6th people would fight with the winner of the 7th and 8th spots. Finally whoever won between those two would face the winner of the fights between the 9th and 10th people. Then whoever won there would fight whoever had won between the winners of the first two matches.

The sensei put his chalk down and turned to face his students, "This is how the fights are going to go, I won't explain it to you since I'm sure you got eyes. Any questions?"

Taishi raised his hand and after receiving a nod asked, "What if there is a draw between the two fighters?"

"Then neither fighter will advance. Now if there's now more questions. The ten of you will come up here one at a time and spin the wheel, whatever number it lands on is your place in the fight. Koujaku, step forward."

Naruto nodded as he moved up to the wheel. He gripped one of the little prongs and pulled down on the wheel with a grunt. He took a step back and watched the wheel spin. Finally with a few clicks, it slowed then stopped on the number 3.

Hiyakedo nodded as he wrote down Naruto's name in the 3rd slot. He then turned back to the line, "Himura, your turn."

Kakan stepped up to the wheel as Naruto moved back to the line. He then pulled down on the wheel and watched as it span around again. This time it stopped on the number 5.

Hiyakedo turned again to the board and put Kakan's name in the corresponding spot. "(whatever name you made up for the third ranked person), get up here."

Kakan stepped back into the line as the other boy came up to the wheel. The boy spun the wheel and watched as it stopped on the number 1.

His name was put into the spot indicated. "Koori, your turn."

Haku sprung up to the wheel with a "Hai Hiya-sensei!" earning a groan from the sensei and chuckles from the other students. She spun the wheel as everyone watched to see what she would get. The wheel slowed, and then stopped on the # 9. With a twirl she went back to her place in the line as Hiyakedo wrote her name down.

"Right then, next is (Whatever name you put for the 5th place student)." The girl dressed in her yukata which had slight tears in it after running thru the forest stepped up to the wheel and spun it. The spinner went round and round before slowing down and stopping at # 4. She looked over to see Naruto cheerily wave at her and she sported a small blush as she walked back into the line. She may have not been a Naruto fangirl (she was actually part of the Kakan fan club), but she couldn't deny that Naruto (and his wolf pup) was somewhat cute.

Hiyakedo wrote her name down on the line that was linked with Naruto's, showing that the second fight had been decided. He turned back to the line and gestured for # 6 ranked student to take his turn.

The Morino Ibiki mini-copy calmly walked up to the wheel and took his turn at it. He crossed his arms as he watched the wheel spin around before he gave off a grunt when the wheel stopped at the #2. He walked back into the line while Hiyakedo finished marking down his name showing that two of the fights at least were decided.

Nobutada (# 7) then came up to the wheel to see what number he would get. He spun the wheel and watched as it went around before it stopped on the # 8. He walked back to his spot in the line wondering who he would get to beat the crap out of **(a/n: pretty violent huh?)**.

"Doryua-" "Yeah, yeah. I'm coming, keep your pants on!"

The girl with the bat covered in nails stepped up to the spinning wheel to see which of the last three numbers she would get. She set down her nail-laden bat and spun the wheel. The girl lifted her bat as she watched the wheel slow, and then stops on the # 6. She walked back into the line with a huff.

"Kuhonbatsu, front and center!"

He leaped up to the wheel and pulled down on it. He pushed up his glasses as he watched the wheel spin around before it eventually stopped on the # 7. He smirked and went back into his place in line, confident that he would triumph over his foe.

Finally Minamoto Katsu stepped up to the wheel, even though he didn't really need to since there was only one number; he just wanted to spin the wheel. It spun around and stopped on the only number left on the wheel: # 10.

Hiyakedo wrote down Katsu's name on the blackboard then turned to face his class. "Alright, this is who you're going to be fighting. Whoever makes it thru all of these fights will compete in the small battle royal tomorrow to decide the # 1 student of the year."

He paused as he let the students look at the matches.

Match 1: (Insert name for #3 student) vs. (Insert name for #6 student).

Match 2: Koujaku Naruto vs. (Insert name for #5 student).

Match 3: Himura Kakan vs. Doryuaki Ryuzei.

Match 4: Kuhonbatsu Taishi vs. Ryuhosi Nobutada.

Match 5: Koori Haku vs. Minamoto Katsu.

He then spoke up again, "Now lets all gather around the sparring ring."

As one the rest of the class moved over to the large ring set into the ground. The ten fighters gathered on one side of the ring with the rest of the class forming a semi-circle on the other side of the ring. Hiyakedo then moved to stand in the center of the ring as he laid down the rules of the tournament, "Ok then, here's the rule that you will following in these matches: Anything but killing blows and disabling a person goes. Jutsu's, weapons, summons, I don't care. If you step, fly, jump, or get thrown out of the ring then you lose. Just don't kill your opponent or cause any disablements to his or her body, we're nearly as short-handed then Suna at the moment. So we can't afford any early losses at the moment. _Stupid Mizukage_." the last part of that was muttered so that the class wouldn't hear it. He shook his head and called forward the first two fighters forward. When the two stood across from each other he raised his arm, waited a heartbeat as both fighters tensed their muscles and brought it down with a sharp, "Hajime!"

The Morino Ibiki copy immediately went through a group of hand seals and whispered, "Ninpou: False Darkness Technique."

To everyone else nothing seemed to happen, but to his opponent the world disappeared and he lost sight of even his body parts which kept him from forming any hand seals to counteract the genjutsu. Meanwhile his opponent walked up to him, gripped him by his shoulders and gave him a solid head but which sent him into unconscious-land.

"Shosha: (whatever name you came up with for the Morino Ibiki mini-me)."

The boy grunted as he moved back to his place in the line while the other student was carried off the field by two of the non-combatant students.

"Well that was short, anyway next up is: Koujaku Naruto vs. (Insert random name for #5 ranked student)."

The two came up to stand across from each other in the dueling ring with the wolf pup standing at Naruto's heels. Hiyakedo waited until they were ready before he raised his arm and called "Hajime!"

The girl immediately pulled out her two sai and rushed at her two opponents. Naruto quickly moved his hand behind his back to the large scroll and activated his weapon retrieval seal. In a poof of smoke appeared an impressive yari (spear) which he maneuvered into a basic defensive position with Shippou moving back a bit, incase he was needed as backup.

When (whatever name you made for her) came within range Naruto attempted a jab at her which she caught between her two sai. She then broke the wooden part of the spear and jumped back while Naruto looked forlornly at his now broken spear.

She twirled her sai in her hands as smirked, "Weren't you supposed to be some sort of expert on weapons?"

"I am," Naruto answered as he brought out a large basic Zanbatou. He then rested the blade on his shoulder, smirking at the young girls paled face, "Unfortunately I haven't had much time to train in the spear whereas I've had plenty of training in the Zanbatou thanks to Zabuza-sensei."

The girl across from him raised a finger as she shouted, "How can you even lift that huge sword!?"

Naruto simply smiled sadly, "Because of what I am I have greater than normal strength. It's a curse and a gift." He then charged at her and swung the large blade down as he shouted, "Don't worry, it's a blunt blade!"

Due to her shock she barely made it out of the way in time and was unable to dodge the spinning kick to her head given by the boy. This sent her flying out of the sparring ring, because of the force behind it from using the sword in the ground as a counter-weight.

"Shosha: Koujaku Naruto." came the voice of the classes sensei as Naruto sealed his Zanbatou back into the scroll while aid was given to (Insert that girl's name here). Shippou ran over to Naruto and was placed back onto the boy's head as the two moved back into the line.

"3rd match: Himura Kakan vs. Doryuaki Ryuzei." The two came into the sparring ring; Kakan with his sakabatou in its sheath and impassive look on his face, Ryuzei with her nail-laden bat on her shoulder and a scowl gracing her features. Hiyakedo looked from one to the other to make sure both were ready and raised is arm. He brought it down for the third time with the customary cry of, "Hajime!"

For a second neither combatant moved, until Kakan seemed to phase out and phase back in at where he started, breathing heavily and sheathing his reverse-edged sword. Ryuzei froze and toppled face-first into the dirt with a red mark on the back of her neck.

Hiyakedo moved to check the downed girls pulse before nodding and saying, "Shosha: Himura Kakan." Kakan smiled and bowed, before he walked slowly back to the group. Moving in such quick, precise bursts of speed still left him tired and sore.

"Next match! Kuhonbatsu Taishi vs. Ryuhosi Nobutada."

Both boys came forward and stood across from each other. Before Hiyakedo could call 'Hajime' Nobutada fished in his pocket for a second and brought out a pair of brass knuckles which he put on both hands. He slipped into a ready stance while just Taishi smirked as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Hajime!"

Nobutada rushed forward at the stock still Taishi. The violent boy clasped his hands together and brought them down in an attempt to bash Taishi's head in, which caused a large cloud of dust to shoot up when his hands hit the ground. It cleared rapidly and showed that Taishi was standing directly behind Nobutada, still facing the same way before he had moved.

"You should not be so obvious comrade Nobutada. With such obvious movements even a baby could get out of the way in time." He quickly did a sweep kick which brought his opponent down to the ground. Taishi then held a kunai that he got from…somewhere…to Nobutada's throat. "Give up comrade Nobutada, or your life will end here."

The boy grumbled before assenting to his defeat.

"Shosha: Kuhonbatsu Taishi." came the voice of the sensei.

The two stood up and made their way back to the line while the next two fighters came out to stand before each other.

"Last match: Koori Haku vs. Minamoto Katsu. Come forward!"

Haku and Katsu moved into the center of the sparring ring and bowed to each other. Katsu drew his wakizashi while Haku brought out two sebon needles, one for each hand. Haku sweated a little nervously, she wasn't that good at close-range combat as Naruto and Kakan, as an added precaution she decided to put a small layer of ice on her needles which gave them an icy blue color.

Hiyakedo looked at both to see that they were ready. When they both nodded he raised his arm...then brought it down. "Hajime!"

Katsu jumped forward and started to bring his sword down in a typical overhead swing. Just as Haku started to bring her needles up to block he spun in mid-air and brought in his sword from the side and managed to make a small cut in Haku's shoulder. As his feet touched the ground he quickly pivoted and made another small cut on Haku's leg before finally bringing it up to her neck.

"Yield." Was all that came from the samurai's son. Haku raised her good arm and said that she forfeited.

"Shousha: Minamoto Katsu." said Hiyakedo.

The two moved back into the line, Haku limping from the cut on her leg, and everyone waited as (insert name for #6 student) and Naruto, w/ Shippou on his head, walked into the sparring circle to start the semi-finals. Shippou jumped down from Naruto's head to take his place by his familiar's side. Both fighters had small smirks on their faces that seemed to say that they were going to enjoy this fight.

"Hajime!"

Naruto did something that surprised everyone there; he detached his weapons scroll and tossed it off to the side. When it landed he started cracking his knuckles, "How 'bout we make this a good ol' fashioned fist fights?"

(Insert name) grinned and cracked his knuckles as well, "Let's."

The two ran at each other and threw their respective right fists; both hit each other with a solid thwap. What followed was a fast, brutal slobber knocker. Hard punches where thrown at the other and neither of them made the effort to block the others throws. It became apparent to some that they were testing each others stamina, as well as how many hits they could take since the two were the physically strongest in the class.

After 5 minutes of solid slugging the two were starting to show signs of exhaustion, with blood flowing down their respective faces from broken noses and skin. Naruto's left arm had fractured and (insert name) was pretty sure he'd broken a couple of his fingers. They rushed at each other one last time to decide who would win. (Insert name) threw out his arm first, it was grabbed by Naruto who twisted and dug his right shoulder into (Insert name's) chest. The hybrid heaved and threw his opponent over his shoulder. The body flew and landed with a dull thud outside then ring.

Naruto's only movement was his heavy panting and silent laughter that moved his bruised shoulders up and down as he stood on bent knees with his arms hanging down at his sides. Hiyakedo moved over the prostrate body of Naruto's opponent to check his pulse, the boy was breathing heavily and seemed to be silently laughing like the boy he had just been fighting. The class's sensei just raised an arm towards the winner of the fight, "Shousha, Koujaku Naruto."

Shippou drug the weapons scroll over to his familiar and sat on his hunches while Naruto reattached the scroll. He slowly moved back to the line, with his wolf trotting beside him, while medic-nins were called to take (Insert name) away to see if he needed anything fixed. When they tried to approach Naruto he just waved them away as he sat down on the ground.

"If I need you guys I'll call for you. Go on," He scoffed at them. Haku, whose cuts had been healed, looked at him a little worried. Naruto noticed and said, "I don't need them remember? My fuzzy-batty side?"

"I just wish you weren't so reckless Naruto-kun. Someday you could be hit by something that it can't heal. It won't hurt to accept help from others." she said.

Naruto scowled, "Yeah, well I—"

"Hajime!" sounded the interruption from their sensei which signified the fight between Kakan and Katsu had started.

At the moment the two were staring at each other, scoping out any weak spots. A floating leaf touched the ground in between the two and they disappeared from the eyes of the rest of the students (Hiyakedo could still see them). They came back into focus sheathing their respective blades.

Everyone was silent, trying to figure out what had just happened when blood gushed out from a gash on Kakan's shoulder. He didn't seem to notice while all the other students just gasped.

Katsu didn't turn to see what happened; he just whispered "You are very skilled. I hope to fight you again." He toppled into the dirt, face first.

Kakan didn't turn either as he answered, "This one hopes so as well."

The medic-nins came up and turned over Katsu. Everyone was stunned at what was shown; a huge red welt ran up Katsu's torso. If Kakan hadn't been using a sakabatou Katsu would have surely died. Kakan didn't want to be carried away to have his wound healed by medic jutsu; instead he only asked that it be wrapped up and he would visit them later.

Hiyakedo cleared his throat and spoke up, "Now for the final match: Koujaku Naruto vs. Himura Kakan. This battle will determine who will compete in the battle royal tomorrow."

Naruto stood up. "Shippou, stay here." he told his wolf friend as he walked into the circle and stood before Kakan. The brown-haired boy reached behind him to his weapons scroll and activated it. Out poofed a zanbatou, but it looked different from the one he had used earlier. It simply looked like someone put a pole into a short steel pillar. It (the steel) was about 5'6'' long and didn't seem to have an edge (think a smaller version of Sanosuke's zanza in Rurouni Kenshin).

Naruto unstrapped his scroll and tossed it out of the circle again. He brought the zanbatou in front of him with the tip resting on the ground and grasping the pole with two hands. "So, I guess we have to fight. This will be a good one."

Kakan nodded, "It would seem so Naruto." He drew the sakabatou, forged for him by Naruto, and held it in a guarding stance.

Hiyakedo looked at both of his best students and nodded to himself. He raised his arm up, and then brought it down, "Hajime!!"

Naruto made the first move. He swung the sword behind him and leapt up, bringing his zanbatou behind him in an obvious overhead swing like in his first fight. His opponent stood unmoving in the face of his attack. With a tremendous crash, Naruto's blade made its way to the ground. This got some gasps of amazement and a few 'wows' from the crowd.

Kakan, who had obviously dodged the strike, came into view swinging a sword that was crackling with lightning. The blade collided with Naruto, shocking and bashing his ribs at the same time. Naruto grunted in pain as he went down to a knee. Kakan, meanwhile, jumped back a bit to get out of the way of a possible counter-attack and took up a neutral stance.

Naruto coughed once to get some feeling back into his lungs before he looked over at the sword he had forged curiously. He just managed to catch a glimpse of a rapidly fading kanji and chuckled. "So you finally made it to the elemental fuuin huh?"

Kakan nodded a slight smirk on his face, "This one finally perfected it this morning. This one didn't think he would be using it in this manner. Shall we continue?"

Naruto said nothing, but stood back up. The two stared at each other for a while before Naruto did something they did not expect.

He raised his arm. "I forfeit."

Everyone's jaw dropped (Kakan did his little 'Oro?!') and Naruto found the sight so funny that he couldn't help but fall to the ground laughing (Shippou was laughing too).

Tears were falling from his eyes before he stood back up, "Hahaha! You guys…ha-ha…You guys look so hilarious right now! Hahaha! Hoo boy. Aaahh, well I've satisfied my laughter quota for the month." He sighed and looked around, only to notice that everyone was still staring at him. "What? I forfeit the match; Kakan gets to participate in the battle royal tomorrow." Everyone, except Haku who started giggling, was still staring, "Gah, forget this. C'mon Shippou."

His wolf familiar came trotting up, carrying the scroll over to him. He quickly sealed the zanbatou into the scroll and put the scroll on his back. Once it was in place, Naruto and Shippou began walking away from the school with Haku following after a minute.

Kakan shook his head and sheathed his sword. "Didn't see that coming." was all he said before he started walking after his two friends.

"The battle royal is at noon tomorrow!!" Hiyakedo shouted after Kakan's retreating back.

--A couple minutes later--

They had almost gotten back to the Momochi clan house when Naruto's mother voice spoke up, "Musoku."

Naruto stopped and his eyes gained the glazed over look that signified he was talking to one of his inner people, "What's up kaa-san?"

"The seal is fading. I'm almost out of time."

----- (End of Chapter) -----

**Unknown-nin345: Hey there, well here's the end of Chapter 6. Sorry it's so short, but it's more of a "Chapter 5 part 2" and I couldn't really find any way to make the fights longer since they're only 8-9 yrs old at this point. Anywho, I'll give you a little preview of something that'll come in the next chapter: Naruto sets out for the stuff his father left behind for him. **

*****Sorry about the really long wait, summer just left me really unfocused. I tried to type this up but I could only stay focused 3-5 minutes at the most, so I just waited for summer to be over.**

**PLEASE REVIEW AND VOTE! IT'S STILL GOING ON!!!**


	7. Halfway through the 2nd year

Chapter 7

**Unknown-nin345: you see! I have delivered!! Chapter 7 of the life's adventure of Koujaku Naruto begins…. NOOOoooowwwww…**

---- (Begin chapter) ----.

Naruto's shock extended outside his mindscape, "WHAT!! What do you mean Kaa-chan?"

Kakan and Haku had just caught up with him and were startled by his shout. The two looked around to make sure that nobody had come out before they pushed Naruto's un-responding body into the Momochi clan house. The two steered him over to a couch and sat him down on it after taking off the weapon scroll.

Meanwhile, Naruto had gone fully into his mind space and quickly entered the room his mother was. She was sitting there with tears leaking out of her eyes as she looked up at him. "I'm sorry musoku. I didn't think it would be happening so soon."

Naruto conjured up another chair and sat across from his mother, "What's going on? What do you mean the seal's fading?"

"The seals that were put on you weren't designed to go through the stress that you've gone through. More energy was drained from them in order to keep your inner wolf in check." She explained.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at a certain part, "Wait, inner wolf? What the heck is that?"

His mother shook her head, "I don't know for sure, you'll have to ask your father. I think it's sort of like a vampire's thirst though, something that you'll experience too." She noticed her son's rapidly growing worried expression and sighed sadly, "Yeah, it's the problem with vampires. The only thing we can digest is blood. So if you try to force food down you'll end up getting sick and will only strengthen your thirst for blood. When it gets too strong you won't be able to control yourself and you'll try to feed on a random person. There's a small possibility the person may turn into a vampire if you aren't careful."

"A small possibility?" He asked, slightly afraid.

She nodded, "There are two specific veins in the neck that a vampire will bite: one is the vein which is used by vampires for feeding; the other allows a vampire to 'turn' a human, I think it's the one that's connected to the brain. Now you should be able to control your thirst for blood by getting some blood packets from the hospital. You just need to show them this mark." She waved a hand and a symbol appeared in mid-air. It had a straight, vertical line with 3 '---' on each side in columns. "If I remember correctly this should be the symbol for the vampire clan that once lived in Kirigakure, but they were mostly killed off in the bloodline extermination about a decade back. You can find the rest of the symbols in a book back at the way station called the book of Erebus. This symbol, however, should grant you access to their blood banks which will help in a couple years, maybe when you're 12-15 I think."

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You think?"

She shrugged, "Well how should I know? I wasn't born a vampire; I was bitten when I was 19 years old." She smiled sadly and tears started to form, "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I was hoping to wait a couple more years before having to tell you this stuff. I'm sorry that your father and I can't be here in person to help and guide you throughout all of this stuff. (Sniff) I'm just so sorry." The tears started falling now and she wept silently.

Naruto, a little uncomfortable at the sight of his mother crying, moved forward and hugged her softly, "There's no need for you to say you're sorry." She hiccupped at this. "No really, all that's happened has made me who I am today. If it hadn't happened then I probably would have never met Kakan, Haku-chan, or even Zabuza-sensei."

His mother smiled and hugged him back (even though the tears still fell), "Thank you musoku. Good luck in your life and when we meet again in the afterlife, I expect you to have given me some grandchildren." She chuckled at his bright red face before she closed her eyes and gave her son one last squeeze, "Good-bye Naruto-kun."

Naruto closed his eyes to block the tears coming and whispered, "Bye, Kaa-chan."

The image of his mother faded away, the seal's power having been all used up. Naruto just sat there in the room for a while silently letting his tears fall.

"_**So, this is my outer human. Pretty pathetic if you ask Me.**_" a gravely voice came from behind him. It had a rasping sound to it, like a person who hadn't spoken in forever tried to speak for the first time. Naruto quickly turned and saw something he didn't expect. Leaning against the doorway was, in a way, himself. But he looked very different, this 'Naruto's' skin was an ashen gray and he had brown fur running down his chest in an upside-down triangle shape with two stripes of fur going down his arms. His hair was wild and looked like it had never even been attempted to be tamed. He smiled sinisterly, revealing a row of sharp, jagged, and pointed teeth that seemed a little bit longer than normal. Finally, his eyes had a black sclera with a moon white iris and pupil. "_**Hmm, kaa-san is finally gone. Just need for tou-san to leave and then we can have our little fight.**_"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow, "Ok, two things. Who are you? And what do you mean by our little fight?"

"_**Hah! Tou-san hasn't even told you about me yet. Man, I thought he'd at least tell you about little ol' me.**_" He smiled his toothy grin and spread his arms wide, "_**Who am I? Well, I don't really have a name but if you must give me one, how about…. Airen? I'm your inner wolf Naruto.**_" Naruto's eyes widened a bit in shock, "_**Oh you don't have to worry about anything…yet. That's what I mean by our little fight; it's for the right to control this body. We will fight for it one day and on that day one of us will disappear forever while the other gets this body. So get strong, I want our fight to be an... enjoyable one.**_" With that Airen walked off, to wherever it was he stayed at in Naruto's mind.

Naruto stared at the spot his inner wolf had been standing for a little bit. 'Well, that was strange. I wonder if tou-san can tell me some more about this.' He stood up and made his way to the room in his mind his 'father' stayed in. When he entered the room he saw that his father was in his Lycan form and was howling up at the moon in his room.

The Lycan howled for a while longer as Naruto watched in silence. Naruto's father started to change back to his human form mid-howl, the animal sound changing into a pain-filled yell. His father breathed heavily for a minute before he turned and looked at Naruto, "She's left hasn't she?" (A nod) "(sigh) I'm supposed to just be an image created by the seal and yet I still feel like an actual person."

Naruto walked into the room a bit more to stand by his father. The two stared up at the moon for a short while before Naruto started to speak, "Right after Kaa-chan left, I met Airen."

His father looked askance at him, "Your inner wolf?" Naruto nodded and his father sighed while running a hand through his hair, "I guess it's getting closer then."

"What do you mean?"

The father turned to look at the son, "Naruto. There will come a time when you'll have to fight Airen for dominance of your body. I don't know when he will choose to fight since the time is different for everybody who was born a Lycan." He stopped a laid a hand on his son's shoulder, "You will need to be careful until then…When you change Airen will try to influence your actions. Since he is made up of the more primal aspects of you he will grow stronger in your transformed state. It might be even worse for you because, you are a hybrid." He looked up at the moon, "We're going to need to go to my cave."

Naruto looked at his father in confusion, "You mean the one where you left behind your stuff for me?" His father nodded, "Well, why can't we go now?"

His father chuckled, "Well you could, but even if I told you exactly where the entrance was you wouldn't be able to get in. The entrance will only be revealed when winter's moon meets spring's sun." He ruffled Naruto's hair, "Until then, we wait."

Naruto pushed the hand off his head, "Geez! More waiting." He started to walk off, still speaking to his father, "This stuff better be good tou-san or else I'm going to be so pissed off at you." The door closed behind him as he left and came back to the real world.

-- (Real World)—.

The hybrid boy shook his head and looked around to see where he was, since the last thing he remembered was that he had been standing in the street. Evidently Kakan and Haku had moved him to the living room of the Momochi clan house. He looked down at his feet and saw Shippou curled up there.

"So, mind telling me what just happened brat?" Zabuza said when he noticed Naruto had 'woken up'. He had come home, only to see Kakan and Haku fussing over the comatose Naruto. He told the two to head to bed, especially after hearing that Kakan was going to be in the battle royal the next day, "Both the other brats said that you were pulled into your mindscape by your mother. What happened?"

Naruto was silent for a moment before he said, "Kaa-chan's seal expired. She's gone now."

Zabuza nodded, "I see. So…when are you going to look for the stuff your father left behind for you?"

"By the end of next winter. You can only enter it when the winter's moon meets the spring's sun."

The eyebrow-less man nodded again, "Alright. For now, off to bed with ya." He watched as Naruto left the room, when it was just him he sighed to himself, "Oh, 'Buza you're getting to attached to these brats, it's making ya soft."

-- (The next day)—.

It was a typical day in Kiri as the students and parents gathered at a small arena used specifically for this purpose. It was small, as arenas go, with the stands being divided into eight sections: 5 for the classes, two for all the parents/guardians, and the last one holding the teachers of the 1st years along with the 2nd year teachers, who were there to see the potential students. Everyone was chattering about different stuff that related to the fights; who would win? Who would go down first? Did you hear about that one kid who forfeited in the final round of the choosing tournament?

Haku looked over at Naruto when she heard that last question, "Say, Naru-kun? Why did you forfeit against Kakan yesterday?"

Naruto, who had been lightly snoozing, jerked awake and stretched before he answered, "Eh, don't really know why. I guess I just liked the fight too much to really care about winning, plus Kakan had just added his lightning element seal to his sakabatou. Since he's way faster than me I would have constantly been shocked by the sword. So I forfeited the match and saved myself from a great deal of pain." He went back to his snooze, having been woken up early by Haku, who had wanted them to get good seats at the arena (Zabuza was snoozing in the parent/guardian section as well).

Haku giggled and went back to petting Shippou (who was snoozing as well) while she looked around the stadium as it was still being filled up. 2 hours later she nudged Naruto awake.

"Huh? Who? Wasn't me." Naruto spluttered as he came to.

Haku just pointed down to the arena where a man was walking out to the center.

The man tapped on the microphone he was holding a couple times to make sure it was working, "Hello? Testing, 3.2.1. testing. How you doing today everyone?" He paused to clear his throat, "Welcome all to the battle royal of the first years from the Kirigakure shinobi academy. My name is Hiyuzumi Daichimu; I'll be your announcer for today's fight. All right, for all you fighters waiting behind the gates, listen up 'cause here are the rules: 1) No killing. 2) No removing the reproductive body parts. 3) Have fun! Now lets get started!!"

The crowd cheered here and the announcer started speaking again, "Representing Takedama Hiyakedo's class…Himura Kakan!!"

The class around the two cheered and stomped on the stands while their classmate walked proudly out to the center of the field. He was wearing a black hakama and yukata (i.e.: Himura Kenshin's outfit) with his black hair in its customary sharp ponytail. The sakabatou, as always, hung on his left hip with a shuriken/sebon needle holster on his right hip.

"Next, representing Takeda Yamagachi's class is: Seriyu Norata!"

Out walked a girl that had two wakizashi hooked onto her belt. She was wearing full body leather armor that was purple and her brown hair was about shoulder-length. Her class was cheering for her now, "Go Nora-chan!"

----(A/N: The other three fighters and the fight itself aren't very important to the story so I'm not going to type it up……alright, fine! No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't come up with a fight scene for a group of 8/9-year olds or any more OCs at the moment. Just go with what ever you want for the fight, but include this: Kakan and Norata are the last two standing. Back to the story.)----

Kakan panted heavily as he stared at the only remaining opponent, Norata.

Up in the stands Naruto and Haku watched with bated breath (Shippou was sleeping on the ground in front of them).

"They're both very good aren't they comrades?" a familiar voice suddenly spoke up beside them. The two almost jumped a full foot into the air when they heard the voice.

"Dammit Taishi!" Naruto shouted in anger. Indeed the bespectacled boy seemed to have suddenly appeared from nowhere next to them. "Next time tap us on the shoulder or something when you show up. You'll end up giving us a heart attack or something."

Taishi just adjusted his glasses as he responded, "A shinobi should always expect the unexpected comrade. Never let your guard down, even for an instant." He smirked and pointed at the fighters, "Pay attention, I think this fight is almost over."

Indeed, the two remaining fighters looked like they were using all their remaining strength they had just to keep standing. The 9-year old body just wasn't made for endurance.

'_Crap,'_ thought the black-haired boy, _'I can hardly stand and I've still have to finish this fight somehow.'_ He brought his sakabatou to his side and tensed his sore muscles in preparation for a quick run. _'All or nothing!_' He started to sprint forward, Norata raising her shaking arms up into a defensive stance.

But, as Kakan was halfway to her, he suddenly fell into a hole with a crash. The brunette walked slowly up to the hole in case it was just a trick. When she reached the hole and looked down a sweatdrop formed on her head. Kakan was laying there with a large bump on his head and swirls for eyes.

Norata looked up at the announcer and pointed down the hole, "I think he's finished now."

Daicihmu walked up to the hole and looked down in it as well before nodding. He raised the microphone to his lips and said, "Ladies, gentlemen, and kids we have our winner…Seriyu Norata!" The crowd cheered, Norata's class being the loudest, as the girl smiled and bowed before the crowd.

At this point Kakan was slowly pulling himself out of the hole, having been snapped out of his daze by the cheering. He stood up on swaying legs and held a hand to his head, mumbling about a headache.

"And let's have a round of applause for the runner-up: Himura Kakan!" The announcer shouted to the crowd. Another burst of cheering agreed with that statement. Kakan smiled and bowed to the stands as well before bowing to Norata.

Up in the stands, a shadowed figure smiled to itself and began walking away, proud of what the boy had accomplished in such a short time.

The announcer started speaking one last time, "Just a reminder folks; the class lists will be next to the academy entrance when it starts back up in two months."

--- (Time skip: 1 month later) ---

In the Momochi clan house, spread out across the living room were three really bored kids and a sleeping silver wolf.

Naruto groaned and rolled onto his back. "Sooo…booorrred," he said, drawing out both words. It had been a month since school had ended and there was nothing to do.

Haku nodded in agreement; aside from the usual taijutsu katas and weapons training they had nothing to keep them entertained. For a while they had asked Zabuza to give them tasks would leave them feeling extremely drained, but even those tasks had grown boring so they stopped doing them.

Kakan, who had been lying upside-down on the couch and flipping through the channels on the T.V., suddenly twisted into an upright sitting position and stopped channel surfing. "Hey, look at this."

The other two turned their heads to see what their friend was talking about. On the TV screen there was an orchestra performing for some important person somewhere. The three of them were silent as they listened to the concert.

Kakan shook his head, "Not necessarily, we could just learn to play instruments."

"That would be a good thing. It would allow us to better disguise ourselves as civilians when we're on the road. Plus we wouldn't have to worry about being bored while traveling either." Haku said, looking over at Naruto.

"Okay." He said before he raised a hand to scratch his head. "Uh, but where are we going to find a music store?"

Before either of the others could reply a voice suddenly came up right behind Naruto, "Never fear comrade! I have the solution!" The brown-haired boy jumped and quickly swung a fist at the owner of the voice: Taishi Kuhonbutsu. The bespectacled boy jumped back from the fist while the other two tried to calm down their thundering hearts, sweat drops rolling down the sides of their heads.

"Taishi! What did I tell you about not doing that!?" Naruto shouted at the intruder.

"Well, what did I tell you in reply?" Taishi countered.

Naruto sighed and rubbed his forehead. "What did you mean anyway? Were you spying on us?" he finished accusingly.

Taishi pointed a finger into the air, "H-how rude! Do you honestly believe me to be who would spy on someone?"

"Yes." Was the answer that came from everyone, even Shippou who had walked in just after Taishi showed up.

"H-how rude again!" He did his little pose again before continuing in a casual stance. "On any account I was not spying on you, comrades. I simply came in through the front door while you were all held captivated by the Kumo daimyo's concert. Ichikawa Minami is a most excellent composer."

"So, what do you mean by you have the solution Taishi-san?" Kakan asked this time.

Taishi grinned and started walking to the door. "Follow me comrades. You will find your answer then." The three friends and one wolf looked at each other and shrugged before following their 'comrade' to wherever it was he was leading them.

A somewhat short walk later, the group arrived in front of a medium sized store. Above the doors were a couple musical notes and the kanji for 'f' and 'g'.

Taishi gestured to the store, "Well, here's the music store you were looking for. Come on in, I'll show you around and we'll see if there's anything you like."

The group followed Taishi into the music store and was greeted with an amazing amount instruments. It seemed like they really did have every kind imaginable.

Haku looked over at the smirking Taishi. "How did you know about this place Taishi?" She asked him.

"I live here with my Ba-san and Ji-san. They've been there for me as long as I can remember and they both taught me the basics of how to play nearly every instrument in the store." He replied with an honest smile.

"Of course there were times when this little bugger quite nearly drove us up the wall." A new voice said. Out from behind a shelf walked a woman who was apparently Taishi's aunt. She had short, dirty blond hair and teal eyes. Her figure was moderately curvy, nothing too grand, but she had a…warm-ness coming off of her that made the others recall having felt this way when they were with their mothers.

She chuckled and said, "So you're Taishi's friends are you? About time he brought some over."

The three looked at each other before Shippou decided to say something. "Sort of, more like acquaintances that know a little bit about each other."

To her credit, Taishi's aunt didn't faint, scream, or shout. She quirked an eyebrow and asked, "I'm assuming that a talking wolf is outside the norm isn't it?" She received a set of nods. "Got it. Just checking. Now, I'm also assuming that you three would like to find an instrument right?"

"Yes ma'am." The three of them replied.

"Hey, ba-san, where'd ji-san go?" Taishi asked his aunt.

"He went to go turn his draft in. If Sawada-san likes it then it'll be his fourth novel published!" She clapped her hands together smiling. "Oh, by the way for the rest of you, my name is Minumi Makihana. From what Taishi has told me, you're all orphans right?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes Minumi-san, even if we don't know how the heck Taishi found out."

Maki chuckled. "Taishi-kun always did have a way of finding out many things that people wanted to be kept secret. Anyways, feel free to call me ba-san or ba-chan whenever you want okay kids?"

Kakan and Naruto shuffled a little uncomfortably while a teary Haku caught their new ba-san in a gripping hug. Makihana smiled gently and hugged the girl back.

Taishi clapped Kakan and Naruto on the shoulders, "Now we are truly comrades my friends. Hey ba-san, can we get these guys their instruments now?"

"Yep. Come on now Haku-chan, lets go get you something to cheer you up." Makihana walked over to the counter and pulled out a slip of paper from inside it. It had an odd symbol on it, two music notes joined together at the flag. "Alright, spread your hand out over the notes and channel some chakra into it. An instrument will light up somewhere in the shop that will be best suited to you. Haku-chan, why don't you go first?"

Haku nodded and wiped away one, last tear from her eye. She stepped up to the counter, laid her hand over the two music notes and channeled a small amount of chakra into the symbol. A couple seconds passed before the notes began glowing an icy crystal blue color with the same glow coming from inside two of the isles.

Taishi quickly went to the objects that were glowing and came back carrying a flute and a violin. Haku took her hand off the seal and accepted both the violin and flute from Taishi. "Arigatou Ba-chan."

Makihana smiled and said, "Don't worry about it Haku-chan. After the boys get their instruments we'll get all the equipment, sheet music, and whatever else is needed for all of you. Naruto-kun, your turn." She finished beckoning the boy over.

The brown-haired boy came up and laid his hand on the notes. A grayish-silver glow came from the symbol as he channeled his chakra into the ink. Answering lights responded in two different aisles from where Haku's violin had come from.

Once again, Taishi went into the aisle to find the instruments that were answering Naruto's chakra signature. The bespectacled boy came back with a cello before heading back into the aisle and returning with a silver tenor saxophone (oh the irony).

Naruto smiled a little when he was given the silver sax, recognizing the irony in what he was witnessing. "Thanks ba-san."

"No problem Naruto-kun." Makihana said. "Kakan-kun, please do the same thing your friends have just done."

Kakan came to the counter finally and laid his hand on the symbol. The typical blue glow of the common ninjas' chakra appeared on the musical notes as Kakan channeled his chakra into the paper. The deep blue light flashed about the store slowly, instead of simply lighting up the specific instrument(s), before finally lighting up two instruments, just like his friends.

"Well," Taishi's aunt began, "that's very rare. I've never seen this many people suited to more than one instrument right off the bat, usually the seal waits until the person becomes proficient in a certain area before giving him or her another section. Taishi, go collect the instruments one at a time please."

Taishi bowed and moved off to gather the glowing instruments. The first one he brought back was a viola, and the next was one that surprised even Taishi's aunt: an ocarina.

"Wow, you all are certainly a both a diverse and similar group when it comes to your instruments. I'm actually surprised the ocarina showed up as one you would best be able to learn, not many people even know what it is." Makihana said, smiling to the black-haired boy.

Kakan turned the ocarina over in his hands as he said, "My kaa-san used to play one, back when my parents were part of a traveling caravan. She would play it at dinner and whenever I had trouble getting to sleep." He looked it over real quick and placed his fingers over the required holes along with the twisting knob.

Without, preamble he began to play a melody on the instrument that seemed to flow from one note to another like a winding river. Taishi and his aunt both apparently recognized what Kakan was playing and grabbed instruments of their own: Taishi the tenor sax, and his aunt the violin. They quickly joined the black-haired boy while the other three listened on, entranced.

The song lasted a couple minutes longer before slowing down and ending with a quiet fade. Naruto, Haku, and Shippou clapped (the wolf slapping his paws on the floor) while the three musicians bowed to each other in respect.

"That was great!" Naruto said.

"Are we going to be able to play like that ba-chan?" Haku asked the woman behind the counter.

Maki smiled at the girl and nodded, "Sure you'll be able to. It just takes practice and commitment in order to be able to play. Ask Taishi-kun, he's been doing this since he was six and he still has quite a long way to go."

The glasses-wearing boy chuckle and told the rest, "I hope to someday be as good as my oba-san. She's a master at every instrument there is. Except tissue paper."

The other three kids' heads turned to look at the slightly blushing woman. "Taishi-baka had a bet going on with my husband that I couldn't make music with a piece of tissue paper. My husband thought I could and Taishi couldn't. The stakes had been that if Taishi won, then he'd get to become a shinobi; if my husband won, then Taishi would be instructed to follow in both our footsteps. He'd be a novel writer and take care of the music store once we had passed on." She reached over and flicked her nephew in the forehead. "Obviously, Taishi won since he's been learning at the Kirigakure academy and he's brought it up every opportunity he can."

Another new voice spoke up behind Shippou at this point, which made the usual three jump. "Yet, the baka still decided to learn to play instruments instead of learning to write." Kakan, Haku, and Naruto spun around and saw the man who was very apparently Taishi's Uncle.

He stood at a good 5'11'' with wavy, charcoal-black hair that came down to his shoulders. He had bright green eyes that stood out because of the color of his hair.

He smiled and held up a hand, "Yo. You all must be Taishi's friends' right? Minumi Daichi's the name, writing novel's the way for me."

"Nice to meet you." The three said in unison.

Daichi noticed the instruments on the counter and slapped his forehead, "Gah, she's converted you to the way music playing hasn't she? Why is it that no one ever wants to writ a book instead?"

"Face it sweetie, music will always triumph over writing. You just can't beat the sweet sounds brought forth by my lovely instruments." She stuck out her tongue and held up two fingers in the victory sign.

Daichi quickly move forward and managed to capture his wife's tongue between his thumb and forefinger. Makihana mewed angrily when she couldn't draw her tongue while her husband just smirked. "Hah, got your tongue! You want it back?" She nodded with a scowl on her face. "Admit that my writing is better than your music, after all you wouldn't even be able to play if your songs weren't written down anyways."

The kids all chuckled at the display, while Makihana seemed to be thinking this over. She finally looked like she had come to a conclusion and nodded as much as she could with her tongue still being held.

He let go off her tongue and his wife admitted that his writing was better than her music. After he had left the room to go take a nap, Maki winked at the children and finished her admission, "So far as the paper goes." That got a laugh out of everyone gathered.

Makihana shook her head and said, "Well, might as well get all that you'll need for this stuff. Then we can put it all into scrolls and you four can be on your way. I'll be back in a minute or two." The blonde woman walked into a back room behind the counter and the kids talked for a bit about which section of the academy they'd like to be in when the school started up again. They all agreed that they'd like to be in the hunter-nin part of the academy thought it would be awesome if they all ended up on the same team.

Makihana came back out then with all the stuff they would need to take care of their instruments. She then started to explain to each of them what each piece of equipment was, what it was used for, and how to ensure it could be used to the best result.

When it was all sealed the three children and one wolf headed off, with the promise that they'd be back every day for lessons in how to play their instruments.

That was pretty much the routine for the rest of the month. They'd get up, go through their training with Taishi sometimes joining them, and then head to the music store for lessons. Finally, to their surprise, the month ended much quicker than the first month had and it was back to the Kirigakure academy for their second year of instruction.

The group of five (Shippou back in pup form) made their way together to the Academy. They arrived at the front doors and managed to quickly get up to the lists since they were a little early. All five let out a small cheer when they saw that all of their names were in the list for the Hunter-nin section of the second year classes.

They moved on to the classroom and entered to take their seats. Only two others were in the room when they came in, neither of them was recognizable to the group of five. They sat down together at one table since all of them had four seats per desk.

Slowly, the class filled up until there were no open seats. Some of the students recognized Kakan from the final round of the battle royal, but the group noticed that no one else from their previous class was with them now. They all sat silently now, waiting for the instructor to arrive.

As they waited a mist very slowly started to form at foot level, catching the attention of some of the students. The mist moved to the front of the classroom and began swirling into a pillar of mist up there. All of a sudden it dispersed, revealing a male figure wearing a black full-body cloak and a plain, white mask with the black slits for the eyes. The mask turned left then right, looking over the students gathered.

"So," the monotone voice began from behind the mask, "all of you here hope to become one of Kiri's hunter-nins huh? I'm here to tell and teach you what I think will help you not get killed if you make it out to the hunt. If you listen to anything in this class listen to this:" At this point his voice gained a steely edge when he spoke, "Unless we get involved in an outright war, the Hunter-nin sees the most blood and the most death out of any other section. We are the ones who get assigned to KILL people. If you can't handle that, then get the hell out of here."

To their credit, not one of the students shifted during or at the end of the speech and none left once it was finished (even if some looked a little paler). The students may not have been able to see it, but they could just feel the smirk that the man was giving off when no one moved.

"I'll soon see whether you can take it or not in the upcoming weeks. Now, to decide what the squads are going to be. Look around at the people at your table." He waited a minute as they did just that before he said smirking evilly, "That's your squad."

One of the students decided to play the role of the whiny brat right here. "What?! That's totally not fair. We shou--" the kid was stopped by the feel of cool metal resting on his cheek

"You should shut up right now if you don't want a scar." The instructor interrupted in a dark tone, "The only choices you get in your career of being a Hunter-nin is how you're going to kill your target, what you'll do with the remains, and whether or not you'll live to 30."

The man removed the kunai and sheathed in the blink of an eye. He strode back up to the front of the classroom and turned to face the students. "Now, before we begin there are a couple questions that I need to ask you. One, have any of you seen death before?"

About seven of the students raised their hands.

He nodded, "Okay. Raise your left hand if it was just someone passing away quietly and peacefully. Raise your right hand if it was someone actually being killed."

Three of the students raised their left hands while Taishi, Haku, Kakan, and Naruto raised their right hands.

"This last one I won't expect an answer to but, have any of you killed someone before today?" The instructor asked them

Kakan, Naruto, and Haku raised their hands, not hesitating when they did. The instructor raised an eyebrow in surprise underneath his mask while the whole class turned to look at the three of them.

"Hmm, impressive. At least I know the class isn't completely pathetic. Now, there are three words you will become intimately familiar with over the course of the year: Speed, Stealth, and Silence. Each of these is a critical part of being a Hunter-nin and is something I will try to teach to you in order for you to pass. One final thing for today: Only two squads from this class will be able to move on to the third year of the academy. Dismissed." With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. The students filed out of the class slowly in a stunned silence.

As they walked to the music shop for their lessons Naruto looked over at his friends and said, "You know something? He never told us his name."

--- (A couple months later) ---

Winter in Kirigakure meant walking through a foot of snow and really cold mist, even if the cold season was almost over. This was the case for our small group as they trudged through the cold to the Academy.

"So today's the day when you head off to get your father's stuff Naruto-kun?" Haku has the brown-haired boy. Oddly enough she was the only one not affected by the cold and was wearing her usual clothes.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I'm sorry I won't be here for your birthday Haku-chan, but I need to go do this. Just got to let sensei know I'll be gone for a week and I'll head off after class is over."

"I hope you're able to find what you're looking for comrade." (Just guess who)

"Me too Taishi, me too." Naruto looked over at his black-haired friend who was strangely silent, "Hey Kakan, you okay in there?"

Kakan looked up at him and nodded, "Yeah, this one is just trying to figure out the specs for a new fuuinjutsu that should be a big help when we graduate. This one admits he is still having trouble figuring out some of the simple aspects."

Naruto smiled and clapped his friend on the shoulder, "If anyone can make it, it'll definitely be you buddy." The nodded as well, showing their agreement too.

"Thank you my friends."

With that they continued on to the Academy. The class today seemed to get finished even faster than usual and before the group knew it the class was over. Naruto informed their sensei that he was going to be absent for a week and all the man said was that he was going to do double the work when he got back.

They went back to the Momochi clan house together as Naruto packed up for the trip. Before he left Kakan gave him a slip of paper with an odd Kanji on it.

"Place this in the way station when you get to it. It's a transportation seal that'll let us go from here to it without needing to travel." He told Naruto. The brunette smiled and said that he thought Kakan could eventually become the next greatest seal master.

Haku had given him a small peck on the cheek and told him to be careful.

And Taishi, well he gave Naruto tearful hug shouting all the while that his comrade was so brave to be going off by himself.

With the goodbyes done and over with, Naruto set out for the gate with Shippou in his normal size as his only companion. When the two reached the gate they were surprised to see Zabuza waiting for them.

He stared at Naruto for a minute before speaking, "Naruto, when you get back there is going to be something that I have to tell you. So hurry there, get what you need and get back pronto."

Naruto nodded his head, realizing that it was serious since Zabuza had used his name instead of the usual gaki. "I will Zabuza-sensei. See you later."

Zabuza stayed silent as he watched his student vanish in the mist down the road. A large body walked up next to him and looked where Naruto had just been. "So that was your prize pupil, eh no-brows?" He asked in a gravely voice.

Zabuza just looked at the taller man out of the corner of his eye, "He's better than Suigetsu shark-face."

'Shark-face' just chuckled, "We'll see. So it'll go down next week."

'Buza nodded, "Yeah, be ready for it."

"Oh, I think that Samehada is going to be more then ready for this fight. Later no-brows."

Zabuza stayed where he was for little while before he headed back to the Momochi clan house.

Meanwhile Naruto was making good time, having decided to run for a while. He followed the road until it came to a fork. He looked left then right before looking ahead. In front of him were two cliffs that followed alongside the road, but there was a thin crevice in the middle of them.

He looked down at his familiar and asked, "What do you think? Left, right, or through the crevice?"

The wolf looked in all three directions before he walked up to the crevice and sniffed at the entrance. He looked back at Naruto and tilted his head to the darkness, "I smell water coming from here, a lot of it. But, there's something strange about the scent."

Naruto came up to the crevice and saw that at his present size he could walk through it if he bent his head a little. "Well, never let it be said that we were cowards. Lets go through the crevice and see where it leads." With that the two plunged into the darkness.

--End of Chapter 7—

Unknown-nin345: Hi there everyone, sorry about taking so long to do this but I had come down with a severe case of writers block. Anyway just want to tell you all a couple things:

I'm discontinuing the poll for Naruto's elemental affinity. During my case of writers block I came up with a good, unused idea for it so that polls done with.

The poll for Kakan's pairing will be officially closed on Nov. 5, 2008.

No, the crevice that Naruto and Shippou entered at the end of this chapter wasn't the place where his father had left his stuff. But, it is going to be something that will lead to a funny problem for Naruto.

Here are the poll standings at the point in time I posted these two chapters (Nov. 2):

Poll 1: Who should Naruto's pairings be? Haku is already in. You get two choices. Poll will be open until the beginning of the Chunin Exams.

**Now we have:**

A-Oc=1

**B-Tenten=2**

**C-Temari=1**

**D-Yugito=9**

**E-Hana Inuzuka=9**

**Poll 2: Who should my OC-Kakan be paired up with? Please choose only TWO women. (On my account.)**

**Votes so far are:**

**A) Oc (Extremely Shameless) -15**

**B) Shizune (will be 20) -13**

**C) Kurenai (same as Anko) -9**

**D) Anko (don't worry, she'll be younger than canon)-14**

**E) Other (P.M. me as to who) -2**

Thank you for reading and please review.


	8. Setting off, curse received

Chapter 8

**Unknown-nin345: I'm going to make this author note brief this chapter. Just wanted to thank the loyal readers for leaving reviews and, as always, reading my story. Plus, I went back and edited my other chapters.**

**Now for the current poll standings (As of December 7, 2008):**

Poll 1: Who should Naruto's pairings be? Haku is already in. You get two choices. Poll will be open until the beginning of the Chunin Exams.

**Current tally is:**

**A-Tenten=3**

**B-Temari=2**

**C-Yugito=10**

**D-Hana Inuzuka=12**

I decided to take out the Oc since she had only received one vote after five chapters of voting.

**Poll 2: Who will my OC-Kakan be paired up with? Please choose only TWO women. ****POLL CLOSED AS OF NOV 5, 2008!**

**Votes are:**

**A) Oc (Extremely Shameless) -15**

**B) Shizune (will be 20) -13**

**C) Kurenai (same as Anko) -9**

**D) Anko (don't worry, she'll be younger than canon)-14**

**E) Other (P.M. me as to who) -2**

**Therefore, it looks like Himura Kakan is going to be paired up with another Oc and our favorite sexy snake mistress, Anko!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other ideas, lines, weapons, clothes, and/or names from other books, manga, fan fictions, and/or movies.**

_(Last Time)_

_Naruto came up to the crevice and saw that at his present size he could walk through it if he bent his head a little. "Well, never let it be said that we were cowards. Let's go through the crevice and see where it leads." With that, the two plunged into the darkness._

After much groping, grumbling, head-banging, and toe-stubbing in the pitch black crevice that seemed to be going on forever, the boy and his wolf finally saw the light at the end of their tunnel. They sped up a little as the light continued to grow larger and brighter. When they burst out of the crevice, the two had to close and shield their eyes because of the sudden change from darkness to light.

When the two could open their silver and gold eyes, again their jaws dropped slightly in awe. Before the boy and his wolf lay scores of large ponds, each with a pole of bamboo rising out of each, and in the middle of all these ponds were two large statues of dragons that seemed to be joined at the tail resting on a large stone pedestal.

"What is this place?" Naruto asked out loud.

"'**The legendary** **training ground where you can become anything imaginable.'**" Naruto looked over at Shippou, who was reading off of a conveniently placed at the wolf's height. "**'This** **place is Jusenkyo Springs.'**" The wolf finished and looked back up at Naruto, a wolf-y eyebrow raised. "**What do you think it means by, becoming anything you can imagine?**"

Naruto scratched his head in thought and looked back out over the ponds. "Maybe…" he said, "Maybe it has something to do with the water. Just to be safe, I think we should avoid falling into any of the ponds."

Shippou nodded, "**Agreed.**" He set one of his paws on the in-between edge of two of the ponds and saw that it just fit. He drew it back and looked back up at Naruto. "**I don't think you'll back able to walk through here, but I might if you shrink me down to pup size.**"

Naruto stepped over and placed one of his feet on the same in-between edge before agreeing with Shippou since his foot was wider than the path. He drew it back and said, "Alright, I'll shrink you down, just be careful when you're walking through okay?"

The wolf smirked. "**Between the two of us, I'm the more careful one. If you were by yourself you'd always be rushing into stuff headfirst.**"

Naruto chuckled as he laid his hand on Shippou and began the size-changing process. "Well, if you were by yourself you'd never get anything done, 'cause you'd always think too much and by the time you get done, whatever it was you were thinking about would be over."

The now wolf pup looked up at the blonde boy and said, "**Just don't fall into the ponds. I'll see you on the other side.**" With that, the wolf started carefully walking in the direction of the dragon statues.

Naruto watched him walk away before he looked up at the bamboo poles and sighed. "Zabuza-sensei should have given us lessons in balancing on small spaces. This might be difficult." He said to himself quietly.

After one last sigh, he gathered a small amount of chakra to his feet and jumped to the nearest pole. He landed on one foot, wobbling a little, and quickly jumped to the next one, almost falling off of this one. This continued for a while, until he had almost reached the dragon statue.

He had just leaped for the next pole when he glanced up at the dragon statues. One of the stone eyes, which had been unmoving mere moments before, turned slowly to look at him…and winked at him. Naruto was so startled by this that when he landed on the pole he wobbled dangerously for a couple seconds before plunging to the icy cold pond below him.

Shippou, who had already reached the statues, quickly ran to the edge of the pond and stuck his head below the surface to try to pull Naruto quickly to shore. He blindly snapped at nothing before he managed to sink his teeth into the collar of Naruto's jacket and heaved. The wolf was surprised at how light his friend had become while pulling the body out of the water.

When he was able to let go and see how his friend was the wolf's jaw dropped straight to the ground. Instead of the boy he had been used to as his familiar, there lay a girl!

Said girl sat up and rubbed her head. "Owww, note to self: never fall headfirst into a pond of ice-cold water, will lead to major head ache." She looked around and saw a still gaping wolf pup. "What's with you?"

Shippou pointed a trembling paw at her. "**You. New. Look.**"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Naruto asked back.

"**Go…look in the pond,**" Was all that Shippou would say in response.

Shrugging Naruto stood up; walked over to the pond she had just fallen into, and looked down into it. The boy-turned-girl was silent as she stared into the pond for a good minute, not saying or doing anything, then straightened back up before she looked over at Shippou and fainted.

Shippou rushed over and tried slapping her with his paws a couple times, and then he moved to her ear and yipped piercingly a couple times, until he was fed up with it. The wolf pup trotted over to one of Naruto's hands, looked up at his friend's face, and bit down on the hand.

"YOW!" Naruto shrieked as she bolted upright while Shippou released the hand. She quickly grabbed the wolf pup where his neck met his back, where the fur was the loosest, and held him up at eye level. _'Thankfully,'_ Shippou thought, _'the eyes are still the same.'_

"Why did you bite me Shippou?" Naruto asked the wolf pup.

"**Well, you sort of fainted after you saw what you look like now. It was hard to wake you up; I had slapped your face and even barked right over your ear.**" The wolf pup meekly explained.

Naruto's face softened as she set Shippou down. "Oh yeah." She said softly. The boy-turned-girl stood up, walked back over to the pond to see what she looked like, and promptly turned a bright cherry red. She still wore the same clothes as when she had been a boy; which presented a flaw for her now female body since the stomach wrapping did nothing to cover up her new…err, upper chest additions.

She quickly whipped off the large scroll on her back and unrolled it before stopping on a specific kanji. She palmed it and channeled a small portion of her chakra into it, in a poof of smoke a black t-shirt appeared. Naruto quickly took off her jacket and pulled on the t-shirt, followed by the sleeveless jacket, properly covering her female form.

With that done, she went back over to the pool to look at her new features. Her hair had turned a dark green color, but she still had the silver arrowhead stripe running through it. The green locks fell down to her shoulders and framed her face with bangs that came down to her eye brows along with two longer ones that reached own to her cheeks. The two slanted whisker marks had darkened and turned a shade of violet for some strange reason. Other than her hair, facial features, and new body shape that could have belonged to a girl a couple years older, nothing had really changed.

She looked over at Shippou and smiled sheepishly. "Well, this is probably the second weirdest day of my life."

"**Oh, really?**" The wolf pup raised an eyebrow. "**Which day would be the weirdest?" **

"The day I met a talking wolf."

Shippou put a paw over his heart and said, "**Oh, that hurts you know. Here I've been a loyal friend and you call the moment we met the weirdest moment of your life.**"

Naruto giggled at her wolf friend. "Yeah right. You, a loyal friend? There's been plenty of times when you sided with Haku-chan instead of me."

"**True.**" The wolf pup conceded. His canine face grew serious as he asked, "**Do you think there's a way to reverse this or at least change back to being a guy?**"

Naruto shrugged as she turned back to the large scroll and started looking through it. "Don't know, but for now I'm going to warm up a bit." She palmed a specific kanji and a battery-powered water heater appeared along with a water bottle. The green-haired girl turned on the heater and poured the water from the bottle into the small pot attached to the heater. A couple minutes later, she lifted the pot after sliding off her jacket and poured the hot water on herself.

Shippou blinked and his jaw dropped once again in shock. "**Naruto! You're a guy again!**"

The now-male Naruto spun to his familiar. "What?!" Before the wolf could answer, he turned to the pond behind them and looked at his reflection. He brought up both of his hands and pressed them flat against his chest, then reached down to feel in between his legs and sighed in relief.

He sat back down and brought a hand to his chin in thought. "So hot water undoes the change. I wonder…" He reached over to his bottle and poured what little remained onto his head, turning back into a girl.

She looked down at herself and placed a hand on her chest to make sure of the change. "Okay, cold water will change me into a girl." She looked over at Shippou and her lip quirked slightly. "And we just happen to be in the land of water, that's some rotten luck, huh?" She sighed and stood up suddenly, pausing as she felt her breasts bounce a bit. She looked down at her chest and said, "I don't think I'll ever get used to you two."

"**Maybe you should get a bra?**" Shippou suggested; struggling to keep a grin and a laugh suppressed.

Naruto glared down at the wolf pup. "Keep that up and I'll toss you into that pond. I don't think you'll turn into a she-wolf though."

Shippou stopped in his tracks and bowed his head. "**Shutting up."**

Naruto nodded and threw on her jacket before re-sealing the water heater and rolling up the scroll. She then secured the scroll back in its place in the small of her slightly curved back. The green haired girl turned and walked around to the other side of the statue, Shippou following behind her.

Now on the other side of the statue the two could see an actual door leading into the cliff-face. However, the two of them still had to make it past the rest of the ponds. Shippou immediately began making his way on what little ground he could to the door, still silent as he thought on whether or not Naruto would've actually thrown him into the pond.

Naruto stared at the bamboo poles for a second, rolling her shoulder and loosening up a bit.

With a small shout, she leaped to the nearest pole once more, nearly falling over this time due to her breasts. She looked down at them and said out loud to no one, "Maybe I should get a bra." Without another word, she leaped from one pole to next, grunting in annoyance every time her breasts bounced against her chest. Thankfully, she didn't fall into anymore of the ponds, despite her aching legs and sore chest.

When she finally made it to the patch of land that was connected to the door she immediately fell down onto her back (after she had removed the scroll), breathing heavily. She turned her head over to her wolf friend, who was sitting on his haunches looking at her, and laid a hand on his head. Naruto laughed lightly and rubbed Shippou's head gently.

"Well, this has been an interesting bit of travel. Makes you wonder what else we'll face." She head to the wolf pup. With a sigh, she stood up and re-attached the scroll. She tilted her head at the door and said, "Shall we be going then?"

Shippou nodded and Naruto opened the door. On the other side was a dark tunnel that looked more like a hallway in a building than the inside of a hunk of rock. Naruto looked down at Shippou and placed a hand on the wolf's head, this time the wolf grew to his normal size. Together the two made there way down the tunnel; after a while, they emerged from the long, dark underground passage and found themselves not that far from the port town they had been aiming for.

The girl and her wolf walked down the road, but instead of entering the two turned left and made their way down a rarely traversed path. Through woods, they silently walked until they came to an out-of-the-way cove that nobody visited because it people said it was haunted. This wasn't the case though.

In the waters of the cove, a small ship lay berthed. About the ship scurried kage bushins (each dressed in varying seaman gear), shouting orders and snippets of conversation to each other. They had been sent here after Naruto's mothers seal disappeared. Naruto had seen a wrecked and broken-down ship in the cove when they had first arrived in Mizu no Kuni, when the seal had vanished; he had sent a large group of kage bushin to the area to rebuild the small ship.

The fruits of the clones' labors were now realized; the ship had been rebuilt and restocked with supplies along with gunpowder and cannons. The cannons had been forged from scratch since they simply cost too much to go out and buy, so the Naruto clones had improvised and made their own. Finally, the flag had been designed with Naruto's clan symbol in the center, along with a red sparrow on one side and a white wolf on the other that stood out against a dark-green cloth.

Meanwhile, as the female Naruto and her familiar were walking up to the ship, a clone noticed and shouted warning to the head clone that had been left in charge of the rebuilding. This clone leapt down, waded through the water (not changing to the female form), and walked up to the female Naruto, a kunai held at the ready. He was wearing a black pirate hat with a red bandana underneath it; there was a gold hoop earring in his left ear; a black vest over a puffy grey long-sleeve shirt with a black jacket over that covered his torso; over his legs were loose black pants that were tucked into brown boots; and finally he had a cutlass hanging from his right hip **(A/N: Think ****Captain**** Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean)**. On the ship, other clones readied their own knives or shurikens.

At ten paces from each other, the three on the beach stopped and the clone gazed inquisitively at the green-haired female before him. "How many men will a dead man say are on his chest?" He asked the girl standing before him.

"None at all, because dead men tell no tales." Naruto answered the coded question that had been arranged to make sure that it was in fact him, or her as the case may be, and not someone else that had found the ship.

The Naruto clone lowered his kunai and smiled. "Still practicing that transformation technique, eh?"

The female Naruto shook her head and said lightly. "Nope, fell into a magical pond that changed me into a girl. For now, I can only change back when I pour hot water on myself, until I can find a way to reverse this curse. Hang on a sec." The clone nodded and Naruto formed the cross-shaped hand seal used to make a Kage Bushin. With a shimmer a second green-haired, female Naruto showed up behind the original. Naruto turned to look at it and nodded to herself before she dispersed the clone, receiving an odd thought from it.

She turned back to the clone in front of her and nodded at it. "Prepare to set sail, Captain." She reached into her pocket and drew out a silver eagle that had its wings spread out to both sides squatting on a branch. She then pinned it to the clone's chest, right above his heart. "This will make it so that when I summon clones to manage a ship, you will be summoned first and foremost. Every ship needs its own Captain, plus I don't know enough about sea fare to be of any use here."

The clone looked down at his chest for a good long moment before looking back up at the female Naruto and saluting. "Ma'am, or Sir, whichever works, I may bear the rank but ye are the true captain." He lowered his arm and voice. "I'm grateful for this ma'am, but I'd be glad if ye had another of these ranks, for me first mate." He explained to her.

Naruto smirked and said. "I thought that might be the case, so I asked Kakan to make another of lesser rank." With that, she pulled out two small silver bars that were connected by two thinner bars of silver, the rank of Lieutenant. "Here, give this to your first mate."

The clone accepted the rank and nodded to his creator. "Thank ye ma'am. If ye'll follow me, I'll be showing ye to yer cabin for the voyage since ye said ye don't know much about sea faring." With that, the clone turned and began walking to the ship.

The female Naruto twisted to look at her backside and thought to herself, _'Wow, that clone was right. I do have a good ass!'_ Done with the thought she turned back to the ship and started following the Captain clone, Shippou at her side.

When they reached it the Captain shouted, "Throw down a gangplank and be quick about ye lazy dogs!!"

Several of the clones shouted, "Aye, aye Captain!" as they moved to lower the gangplank. The long plank of wood landed at the feet of those on land with a dull thud. Without further preamble, the Captain walked up the plank, followed by Naruto and Shippou. Up on deck, the clones still had kunais and shurikens at the ready as they stared at the female Naruto and the wolf.

"Stow away yer weapons ye pack of ingrates! This be the one who created us, she's going through a little bit of a gender crisis but it still be the same person." The Captain shouted at the other clones. With a little bit a mumbling of 'aye, captain' the crew obeyed. "Now back to yer stations and make ready to sail boys! We weigh anchor as soon as our passenger gets settled!"

"AYE, CAPTAIN, AYE!!" The crew shouted as one. In a flurry the large group of differently dressed Narutos went off to do what it was they did on the ship. One remained behind and strode up to the Captain. He had dyed his hair black (except for the arrowhead stripe) and was wearing a blue vest over a grey short-sleeve shirt along with blue-black pants that were tucked into worn brown boots.

"Capt'n," He started in a low whisper. "You know the tales, it be bad luck to bring a woman on board."

"Mr. Gibbs! That will do. This be the one who created us and set us with the honorable task of building this magnificent vessel. It would be far worse not to bring her on board." He reached out and pinned the two silver bars to the clones left shoulder. "This be pinned on ye to make sure that when she summons a crew to manage this vessel, we be two who will be called for certain, as the Captain and First Mate. What say ye now Mr. Gibbs?"

Mr. Gibbs, as he was called, looked over at his new rank before he looked over at Naruto, smiling and bowing. "Welcome aboard the _White Diamond_ Miss. Koujaku. It be a real pleasure, having the creator of us maggots onboard. I hope ye enjoy the voyage." With that, he straightened back up and moved off to give orders to the other clones.

The Captain looked over at Naruto while gesturing at the clone named Mr. Gibbs. "I and he found a book in the story one day call Pirates of the Caribbean and we sort of took the identities of two of the characters in the book. Everyone else, we just call Mr. Sparrow, as it were. Come on, I'll take ye to yer cabin." With that he started walking along the deck to the aft of the ship, where the helm was, with Naruto and Shippou following.

Along the way, though they came across a clone who was tying a rather pathetic line onto a peg. The Captain stopped and said, "Mr. Sparrow?"

The clone looked up. "Aye, Captain."

"What say you about the condition of this tack line?"

The clone looked down and fidgeted with the rope. "It be proper to my eye, sir."

"Proper?" The Captain asked as he stepped forward. He grabbed the rope and held before the clones eyes as he said, "It is neither proper nor suitable, sir. It is not acceptable, nor adequate. It is, in obvious fact, an abomination." He finished and tossed the rope back at the clone.

The clone started to redo the tying of the line as he spoke, "Begging your pardon, sir. But, maybe if you gave a man another chance."

"Shall I?" The Captain said smiling. He suddenly unsheathed his sword and stabbed the clone in the stomach. He leaned in to the clone's ear and said, "It's that sort of thinking that gets people killed." He pulled out his sword and the clone fell to the deck, making a small thud before he dispersed in a cloud of smoke.

A couple other clones had stopped to watch the exchange, some smirking while others shook their heads muttering 'Rookie'. They all snapped to attention though when The Captain looked their way.

The Captain gestured with his sword at where the clone had been. "Let this be a lesson to the lot of ya. You either be efficient or you be dead. We have lost speed because of this, and therefore time. Precious time, which cannot be recovered once lost. Do you understand?!"

"Aye, aye Capt'n!" The small group of clones shouted.

The Captain nodded. "I hope so. Back to yer stations and one of ye take the slacker's place." The clones shouted once more and one of them came to man the tack line that the other clone had been working on. The Captain along with Naruto and Shippou made their way, uninterrupted this time, to a door in the wall of the helm of the small ship.

The clone captain held open the door as Naruto and the wolf entered the room. It was roomy, with a table nailed to the floor in the middle of it that held various maps and map reading instruments. There was a closet that held various clothing in it (of the pirate variety), and a small bunk had been fitted into the wall. Along the back of the room were windows that would let Naruto look out behind the ship as it sailed upon the sea. Up on the wall by the door was a large map of the elemental countries.

Naruto beckoned the Captain into the room and pointed up at the map. "First we head for the waystation, once I finish my business there we'll head up to this island—here." She said, pointing first at the peninsula where the waystation was located, then at an island south of Kuminari no Kuni**(1)**.

The Captain nodded, "As you command, Ma'am." He left the cabin and began shouting out orders to the crew, followed by his first mate who repeated the orders as the Captain shouted them.

In a short amount of time, the sails were unfurled, the anchor was brought up from the water, and the _White Diamond_ began its maiden voyage. Good time was made during the rest of the day, and when night came most of the crew went below deck to catch some shut-eye since the sea was calm as a turtle going about its business. A light night watch stayed above deck, a small amount of lanterns providing light.

Inside the main cabin, the Captain was looking over the maps laid out on the table and discussing the best route to take with his first mate. "Well, before anything be certain we need the reports from the sparrows."

Mr. Gibbs nodded as he turned to the window. "Aye, the two birds should be back any second now."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked from where she was bunking.

The Captain looked over at her and said, "We use the Sparrow summons to scout ahead of where we plan to go, just in case there be a storm or pirates along the course."

"Capt'n!" A voice shouted from outside. One of the clones entered, carrying on his arm two worn out sparrows.

"Set them on the table Mr. Sparrow." The Captain instructed. When the clone did that and the birds were drinking from a little water dish set for them, the Captain gestured to the door. "Go get some shut-eye sailor."

"Thank ye, Captain." The clone saluted and went off to get some sleep.

The Captain looked down at the two sparrows and asked, "Be there any danger ahead?"

The sparrow on the left shook its head. "I didn't see anything that might be a danger along the path you told me to fly over."

The Captain turned his head to the sparrow on the right. "And ye? Any danger that we should be warned about?"

The sparrow tilted its head to one side as it said, "Well I did manage to see a ship, about 10, or so, leagues dead ahead."

"Colors?"

"I couldn't tell. I spotted it after the sun had set and night had gotten under way." The sparrow said sadly.

The Captain nodded. "It be alright. The two of ye did yer best and that be all I asked for. Until next time." The birds bowed and dispersed in twin puffs of smoke.

The Captain looked over to his first mate and said, "Rally the men and ready the guns. I want to be prepared just in case they be pirates."

"Aye, Capt'n. I'll get these cack-handed lazy dogs up and about. If they be pirates we be goin' up against then we shan't be going down without a fight." Mr. Gibbs said, grinning slightly. He left the cabin and as he shouted orders the two still in the cabin could here his voice. "All hands stand to your stations! I want movement you slimy sea dogs! Ready all guns, we have a possible fight coming up!"

There was a pause as a multitude of voices echoed the orders and they heard Gibb's voice again. "Ready those guns! Or it's you we'll load into them!"

The Captain looked over at Naruto and grinned. "Working's good and all, but the crew has been aching for a fight. Some complained that they would never get to see action." Naruto smiled back at him. The clone Captain put his black hat back on. "Well, best go see to the crew." With that, he walked out onto the deck and went up to take his place at the helm.

Naruto stood up and looked herself over. After the ship had set to sea, she had decided to change her clothes to get a better feel of where she was. Luckily, a clone had a little too much rum when he had gone to get some clothes apparently, since there was a small bit of female clothing in the closet, even underwear, and they were all in her size. Unluckily though, the underwear the drunk clone had chosen was a vinyl bra and thong that barely kept the parts they were supposed to cover, covered (though if she were honest with herself both articles of underwear were quite comfortable).

She had put on a brown, low-cut vest that came down to only an inch above the bra, its bottom stopped level with her belly button. Her light blue pants, decorated with painted black roses, hugged her waist and hips before going down to just below her knees, accenting her thighs. On her feet were high-heeled vinyl boots that came up to the middle of her calves. Over all this was a black version of her clan jacket, which ended just below her rear end.

Overall, she felt like she made one sexy pirate. It only needed one final touch: She reached back to the bunk and picked up a hat that had been lying on it. It was a small fedora-style hat with a couple differences; it was thinner and longer than the typical fedora, it had the front-right corner folded down to shade her right eye, and finally it had a small crimson feather sticking out of the left side. Thusly attired, she left the cabin and found the deck swarming with the clone crew, each scurrying about to complete whatever task had been assigned to that particular clone.

"Step lively boys! With a will!" Shouted the first mate, Mr. Gibbs, as he made rounds among the clones to make sure none of them was slacking off.

Naruto looked around and spotted the clone Captain standing at the wheel, holding it and his gaze steady. She made her way up to him and stood next to him when she made it to the wheel.

The green-haired female turned her head over the Captain and asked, "How long until the other ship is in our sights?"

The Captain turned an eye to her as he answered. "Not long, at our current speed we should be coming up on them any minute now." His eye quickly went down then back up. "I must say ma'am, ye certainly look very pirate-y."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "Is that a compliment or an insult?"

His eyes went back to the front of the ship. "It be, most definitely, a compliment ma'am seeing as how pirate clothes were the only ones we could afford to outfit the whole crew in. Mr. Gibbs!" He shouted and his first mate turned to look at him. "Load the cannons and prepare the victory rum!"

Mr. Gibbs saluted. "Aye, Capt'n!" He turned to the crew and continued shouting, "Alright ye cack-handed deck apes make ready on the guns! Load 'em up an' roll 'em out!" The call was echoed throughout the ship, as powder was set into cannons followed by cannonballs while Mr. Gibbs headed below the deck.

After a couple minutes of silence, with the only sounds coming from the crew as they continued to load the cannons and make ready other weapons, a ship came into view. It was larger than the _White Diamond_ and those on the clone-made ship could hear orders being shouted on it as well as the clanking of cannons being loaded. As they drew closer to it, they were finally able to make out the ship's colours: a white skull with two crossed swords underneath on a sable clothe; Pirates. Suddenly the ship, which had been sailing south turned towards them, coming up on the _Diamond's_ right side.

"Hold lads!" The Captain shouted to the other clones. "Wait 'till were board and board! Those who be on the starboard side leave yer guns and switch over to the port side!" The clones complied, a couple sending the order down below the deck, and those on the left side of the deck left their cannons to head over to the right side of the ship, readying kunais, shuriken, and crossbows.

The pirate ship in front of them drew steadily closer and with it, the shouts of the pirates on board. Soon its bow was looming directly of the port side of the _Diamond_ and a couple arrows from the pirate ship were loosed to the clone's ship. The flying missiles hit a couple clones, but since the impact was not hard enough to make them disperse themselves, they were able to remain on the ship.

"Fire!!" The Captain shouted when the _Diamond_ and the pirate ship were side-by-side with Gibbs repeating the order below the deck. Like tremendous bursts of thunder, the cannons let loose their payloads and cannonballs launched toward the enemy ship. The pirate ship returned fire with there own cannons, destroying clones and damaging the ship.

The Captain saw the small holes that appeared in the wood and shouted over at the pirate ship, "Stop blowing holes in my ship!" He looked over at the stairway that lead below and shouted, "Mr. Gibbs! Get those deadbeats to aim for the powder magazine! We won't last long against these pirates if we don't take them down now!"

Mr. Gibbs poked his head out from the stairway and replied, "It be hard going Capt'n, we should have practiced more with the cannons so that the boys could be better prepared!"

"Well, we'll just have to do that later Mr. Gibbs! For now we need to take care of these here pirates!" He shouted to his first mate.

"Aye, Capt'n!" With that, he went back below deck, just as a cannonball passed where his head had been a couple of seconds earlier. For a while, all that could be heard was the thunder of the cannonballs, the shouting of both the clones and pirates, and finally the splintering of wood.

Naruto looked over at the Captain and asked, "How long do you think it will take for the clones to hit the powder magazine!?"

"Hard to say honestly!" The Captain shouted back at her. "We never took enough time to practice with the cannons, being more focused on building this here ship! It shan't be long though, their ship be bigger than ours which should mean that we hit it first; while our ship be smaller meaning it will be harder for them to find our magazine!"

A large explosion came from the pirate ship when the Captain finished speaking. The two at the helm looked over to see large flames springing up all over the ship. The clone crew on the _Diamond_, meanwhile, began cheering at their first naval victory.

Mr. Gibbs came running up to the helm and paused before the Captain, "Capt'n! We did it, we beat them!"

The Captain looked over at the clone and flatly said, "My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know Mr. Gibbs." He looked over at his crew and shouted, "All hands, to your stations! Loose every sail so we can get back under way!" The crew, still cheering slightly, complied and all went back to their assigned stations. Soon, every sail was unfurled and the wind carried the ship away from the burning image of the now destroyed pirate ship.

Naruto looked over the railing of the _Diamond _as it slowly moved forward and could see the still bodies of the dead pirates. She touched a couple fingers to her forehead and then waved them down at the dead bodies floating in the water.

The green-haired girl turned away from the sight and looked at the Captain as she asked, "How long until we reach our destination?"  
The Captain looked up at the position of the moon and thought for moment before he answered, "We should be there by the time the sun be rising in the sky. Ye might as well catch a few hours of sleep ma'am."

Naruto nodded and went back down to the cabin, where she found Shippou still asleep on the end of the bunk. She sweat dropped at how much of a heavy sleeper the wolf was and shook her head chuckling. She took off her hat and crawled into the bunk, pulling the blanket over her head and falling asleep within a couple minutes.

It felt like she had only been in the realm of dreams for a couple minutes when she felt her shoulder being shook. The green-haired girl poked her head out from underneath the blanket and closed her eyes due to the bright light shining in the cabin. Once she could see again, she could make out the clone Captain standing over her with his hand still on her shoulder.

She shook her head and asked, "What time is it Captain?"

"It's been daylight for a long while now and the sun be almost at it's highest in the blue sky. We dropped anchor when we made it to land and began making repairs to the ship. I came down to make sure you hadn't left without letting one of us know ma'am." He answered.

Naruto's eyes snapped open as she shot upright in an instant. "What?! Why the hell didn't you wake me up sooner? I could have gone to the Waystation and been back by now! Send off a messenger sparrow as soon as you can to Kakan and let him know that I've place the seal." She ordered in a hurry. She threw off the blanket and threw on her hat along with the weapon scroll as she made her way to the cabin door. Shippou jerked away and yawned loudly before he got up and hurried after Naruto. Naruto threw open the cabin door and quickly made her way over to the side of the ship closest to land with Shippou right behind her.

She looked over the rail and saw that the land was only a quick wade through the water away. She looked back over at the Captain and nodded to him. "See ya in a bit." With that, she vaulted over the railing down to the water below.

Shippou backed up a bit before he rushed forward and jumped over the rail shouting, "**Geronimo!**"

A quick wade through the surf and the girl along with the wolf stood on the shore of the mainland. The two looked back at the ship and Naruto waved before they took off through the forest to the Waystation.

--- (A half-hour later) ---

Naruto and Shippou burst through the foliage at the top of the waterfall where the waystation was located. Without pause, the two moved forward and quickly found where the symbol lay carved in the ground. Naruto summoned a katana from the scroll on her back and stuck it in the seal before turning it in the required direction, raising the doorway from the earth.

When the doorway was fully unearthed Naruto withdrew and resealed the katana back into the scroll on her back. Both the girl and wolf then went over to the stone doorway and entered down the spiral staircase, and then came to the stone hallway that led to the riddle wall.

Naruto placed her hands on the wall and one again channeled her silver chakra into the rocky surface. Just like when they first came to the waystation silver-y kanji lit up upon the rock wall.

Naruto read the riddle:

"_Alive without breath;_

_as cold as death;_

_never thirsting, ever drinking;_

_clad in mail, never clinking._

_Drowns on dry land,_

_thinks an island_

_is a mountain;_

_thinks a fountain_

_is a puff of air._"

Naruto looked down at Shippou and Shippou looked up at Naruto. Both shrugged and said at the same time, "Fish." "**Fish.**"

The kanji for 'fish' appeared before the kanji for the riddle rearranged itself. Naruto gestured for Shippou to do the honors.

"_**Grey as a mouse,**_

_**Big as a house,**_

_**Nose like a snake,**_

_**I make the earth shake,**_

_**As I tramp through the grass;**_

_**Trees crack as I pass.**_

_**With horns in my mouth,**_

_**I walk in the south,**_

_**Flapping big ears.**_

_**Beyond count of years,**_

_**I stump round and round,**_

_**Never lie on the ground,**_

_**Not even to die.**_

_**________ am I."**_

Shippou looked up at Naruto and asked, "**What do you think?**"

Naruto stared at the riddle, reading it in silence, before she said, "Oliphaunt am I."

The kanji glowed and the wall became the jell-o like substance, as it had been when they were last there. Naruto looked down at the wolf, which was still staring at him, and said, "The Lord of the Rings. It was good book." She looked back and said to the readers who are reading, "Seriously, pick it up and read it. They're all good books."

Shippou looked in the same direction that Naruto was speaking. "**Who the heck are you talking to?**"

"The readers of course. The author is making me do free advertising." Naruto said as she looked back down at the wolf before gesturing to the jell-o wall. "Come on, let's get this over with and head up to where Tou-san left us his stuff."

Shippou nodded and both entered the waystation. Once inside, Naruto made her way to the hallway that led to the bedrooms and took out the seal that Kakan had given to her back in Kirigakure. She slapped it on the wall and ran a hand over it a couple of times to smooth it out on the wall and make sure it would stick.

The green-haired girl then turned and went into one of the bedrooms. She quickly strode over to the closet and opened it, smiling when she saw its contents. Inside the closet were all manners of female clothing. Naruto quickly removed the scroll from her back and set it on the ground before she unrolled it. Stopping at the first empty space she came to she painted the kanji for 'female' with specific designs in it to allow for sealing.

Once she finished she got up and looked throughout the closet pulling down almost everything she thought would look good on her. When the silver and gold-eyed girl finished, she put the clothes down on the seal and placed her hand on them before channeling her chakra. In a poof of smoke, the clothing disappeared into the seal.

Naruto rolled the scroll back up and placed it back on her back. She looked back at Shippou who was standing in the doorway and asked, "What?"

Shippou tilted his head and asked in return, "**Think you got enough stuff?**"

"Haku can help me sort it out when we get back to Kirigakure. Come on, we don't have much time to get to Tou-san's place." She said, making her way to head back to the ship with Shippou following her.

_End Chapter_

**Unknown-nin345: Hope you liked the naval battle I wrote, I don't really know a lot about them so I just went with what might've worked. The only real reason the clones won was that they got in a lucky shot that just happened to destroy the pirate ship. Nothing much else to say, except: NINJAS AND PIRATES RULE!!!**

**Remember the two R's and one V: Read, Review, Vote.**


	9. IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**HELLO EVERYONE, THIS IS Unknown-nin345 SPEAKING…TYPING…WHATEVER. **

Anyways, I'm here to tell you all that I've decided to discontinue this story. I somehow lost all the data I had for this story: all the chapters I had typed up as well as the ideas I had typed for future parts of the story.

So, I'm sorry to say I've decided to discontinue this story. I hope you enjoyed the chapters I managed to produce so far and if any of you feel up to adopting the story then the only things I would ask is that you keep it NarutoXHaku and that you speak to chaotic storm for info on the OC-Kaken.

Also be sure to check out my other stories.

**This is Unknown-nin345 signing off.**


End file.
